The Web-Slingers Girlfriend
by FireflySurvivor
Summary: Set after TASM. For Gwen Stacy, no one said returning to normal life after the Lizard Incident would be easy. Four months later, Peter must keep the city safe and protect his loved ones. [Peter & Gwen Fluff]
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: Aright so this is my new story I have been working on. I had a few Peter and Gwen moments that I written so I decided to write them into a story. This is set four months after the ending of the first movie. When it comes to the characters I've included, it is slightly different from the characters you see in the movies. So I guess you can say it is slightly AU. I looked to both the movies and TASM video games to write this. So it's my take of what happens after TASM.**

**The first chapter is a bit short; it is kind of an introduction since I wrote it while brainstorming the plot. They will get longer as we go along. This is my first time writing a story like this so it is all new to me, so I hope you enjoy and let me know what you think. **

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter One<strong>

Gwen let out a tired sigh as she brushed her blonde bangs away from her eyes using her hand. She brought her attention back on the notebook that was placed on her deck on front of her. She took notes in her notebook while doing research on the computer. She rested her head on her left hand while using her right hand to occasionally switch between using the computer mouse and holding the pen. She was determined to get his work done. She quietly read the notes out loud to herself as she looked through the notebook.

Her concentration was interrupted by the loud crash of thunder outside. The sudden and loud noise caused Gwen to jump, tossing the pen across the wooden desk. She stood up from her chair and walked over to her bedroom window. Crossing her arms, she watched as the rain drops rolled down her window. She had been listening to the sound of the heavy rain hit her bedroom window for the past hour. Her family were not home, so there was no background noise in her apartment to drown out the sound of the harsh weather outside.

Gwen could hear more thunder outside. She gasped and quickly moved away from the window when a bolt of lightning lit up the sky, highlighting the tall buildings surrounding her bedroom window. The limited lighting from her lamp, made the lightning bolt stand out even more. Thunder never bothered Gwen; however she was never a fan of lightning. She never understood why but lightning always made her nervous. She pulled her curtains closed to try and help her ignore anymore lightning that may come. She sat down at her desk as she went back to her work.

Within five minutes, Gwen was suddenly sitting in complete darkness. Her computer and lamp turned off, anything that was providing light in her bedroom was gone. "Please no." Gwen quickly got up and went over to the light switch on the wall and flicked it up and down a few times, hoping that the lights would turn on. When nothing happened, it confirmed that the storm had caused a power outage. She let out a frustrated groan as she slammed her hand against the wall. "Great." Being home alone, in the middle of a blackout was not a situation Gwen wanted to be in.

The only light in her room was the shape of the window and the pattern of the curtains. Gwen made her way over to her desk and picked up her phone and notebook. She sat down on her bed, moving back to sit against her headboard and turned on her phone, smiling at her screensaver of herself and Peter. She held the phone over her notebook to provide some light. She found it difficult to read her notes with the dull light from her phone. She strained to see the writing with the terrible light her phone provided. After a few minutes she put her notebook onto her bedside table and lay down on the bed. She moved her fingers across the phones touchscreen. She opened her messages to text some of her friends. At least she would be talking to someone even though she was all alone in her apartment.

She heard someone knock on her apartment door, causing her to jump up from where she was laying down. Using her phone as a makeshift flashlight, she slowly made her way out of her bedroom and into the apartment hallway. Gwen was never afraid when she was on her own, but being in this situation made her feel like she was in the middle of a scary movie. She was almost certain that if the power was on, there would be no one knocking on the door. She slowly made her way towards the front door, the creaking of the floorboards only making her feel more anxious. She heard a knock on the door once again, only this time it was louder.

"Who is it?" She shouted, immediately regretting what she just did. Not knowing what to do, she grabbed her brother's baseball bat and held it up.

"It's Bug-Boy." She heard a male voice shout. She recognised the voice straightaway. She threw the baseball bat onto the floor and moved it against the wall before marching over to the door. Using her phone for light, she unlocked the door and opened it to see Peter standing there doing the exact same thing with his phone. Instead of greeting him with a smile like Peter had done, Gwen used her free hand to punch Peter's shoulder. Peter's warm smile quickly changed into a shocked look. "What on earth was that for?"

"You scared me!" Gwen snapped as she moved to the side to give Peter access to her apartment. She closed the door and locked it again. "Why couldn't you just call me to let me know it was you?"

"I didn't mean to scare you, I'm sorry." He said, laughing as he leaned in to kiss her. When they pulled away, Peter moved the large square box he had been sitting on his right arm towards Gwen. "I brought your favourite."

Gwen didn't even have to ask what it was; she could smell the freshly cooked pizza in the box. She gave him a grateful smile as she stood up on her toes to kiss Peter's cheek. "I forgive you. Being it into the living room, I'll get the plates. I'm sure we have some candles here somewhere."

"I'm just glad the power went out before I got into the elevator." Peter laughed as he set the box down on the coffee table and opened it. He inhaled in the delicious smell of pizza.

"If you did get stuck in the elevator, at least you would have the pizza with you. You wouldn't go hungry while you were stuck there." Gwen called as she took two plates out of the cupboard and brought them into the living room. She placed them on the coffee table and headed over to the drawer and began searching through it with the help of her phone. "This storm is getting pretty bad, huh?"

"It's crazy out there. Everyone is being warned to stay indoors." Peter said as he took off his jacket and hung it on the coat hanger in Gwen's hallway. He kicked off his shoes before heading back into the living room and sitting down on the floor in between the couch and the coffee table. He pointed the light from his phone towards Gwen, who was standing next to the coffee table. "At least we have the pizza."

"We won't be in the dark either." Gwen grinned as she held up a box of matches in her left hand and three tea candles in her right. She set the candles down on the coffee table and spread them out evenly. She lit the match and leaned over to light the candles. Once the candles were lit, she stood up straight and blew out the flame coming from the match. The candles didn't provide much light, but it was enough for Peter and Gwen to actually see each other.

Gwen brushed down her white, knee length nightgown and she sat down on the couch. She grabbed the blanket that was folded over the back of the couch and used it to cover her bare legs as she put her feet up on the couch. Once she was comfortable, she took the plate with a slice of pizza on it from Peter.

"Thank you. You really didn't have to do this." Gwen said as before taking a bite of the pineapple and ham pizza.

Peter picked up a slice out of the box and put it down on his plate. He turned around from where he was sitting on the floor to face Gwen. "Well, you were here on your own in the middle of a thunderstorm; I thought I would surprise you. I didn't think the power would go out so it's a good thing I came over."

"You are so sweet." Gwen smiled. She set the pizza back down on the plate that was sitting on her lap. "This is a really nice surprise. I really didn't want to sit here alone in the dark."

"Where are your family tonight, anyway?" Peter asked, just before hearing another loud crash of thunder outside. Both Peter and Gwen looked over at the living room window. Raindrops were rapidly sliding down the window as the already brutal storm began to get worse.

"Philip is staying with a friend. Simon and Howard are with our cousin. My mom went out with her friends." Gwen told him as she looked away from the window and moved position on the couch. "With that weather, it doesn't look like they will be home anytime soon."

"It's not a very nice night for your mom to be out with her friend." Peter pointed out as the room was briefly lit up by the lightning, causing both himself and Gwen to jump. Peter heard Gwen let out a small shriek; he smiled at how she held her hand to her chest with a frustrated look on her face. He guessed this wasn't the first time tonight that the lightning had frightened her.

"I think she could just use some company." Gwen said, her heart still beating fast because of the fright from the lightning. She looked down at the plate on her lap before looking up at Peter. "Her friend's husband was killed last year in a car accident. So she can understand what my mom is going through right now."

Peter sighed as he placed his hand on Gwen's knee over the blanket. It had been nearly four months since the death of Captain Stacy. Gwen's family were still going through raw emotions as they grieved for their father. Gwen was appearing to be coping with her loss well, but Peter knew from his own experience that Gwen was still hurting but not showing it. Gwen looked at towards window. Between the dull light from the window and the glow of the candles, Peter could see Gwen's eyes well up with tears. "Gwen, I'm so sorry."

"Don't be sorry. I told you already, I don't blame you." Gwen shook her head and put on a smile for Peter. She quickly wiped away a stray tear from her eye. Despite her smile, Peter could see so much sadness in her eyes.

"Promise you will talk to me?" Peter asked as he took Gwen's hand and gave it a gentle squeeze. He knew this part of the grieving process, for weeks he couldn't hear anything mentioning his Uncle Ben without being moved to tears. He could tell Gwen was feeling the same but she was very good at hiding it. "I know I pushed you away when you tried to comfort me, but I also know now that it isn't good to keep all these emotions to yourself."

Gwen tried to smile again but ended up letting out a small sob as she desperately tried to stop any tears from falling from her eyes. She had only cried on front of Peter once, that day at his house when she went to find out where he had been. Gwen hated crying on front of others, she was good with talking about how she was feeling or any problems she may have but she hated crying when others were watching her. "It still really hurts."

"I know it does." Peter tried to comfort her as he pulled himself up onto the couch to sit next to Gwen. He moved the plate from her lap and put it down on the coffee table. He moved closer to her so he could wipe away one of her tears with his thumb. "Being the oldest, you have the responsibility to make sure your mom and brothers are okay."

Gwen nodded and gave Peter a gentle smile as she placed her hand on Peter's arm. "I guess it was the same with you and your Aunt May?"

"We helped each other through it. Remember I'm here to support you though this, okay?" Peter told her. Gwen looked down at her hands once again and nodded. Gwen smiled at Peter again as she held out her arms towards him for a hug. Peter moved closer to her and wrapped his strong arms around her. He could smell the scent of her strawberry shampoo as he rubbed gentle circles onto her back.

They stayed like that for a few minutes until another crash of thunder interrupted the moment. The sudden noise caused Peter and Gwen to jump away from each other. Gwen looked at the tight grip Peter had of her hand and began laughing. She reached over the picked up the plate from the coffee table. "We should finish the pizza before it gets cold."

Peter nodded in agreement as he picked up his own plate.

When they finished eating, Gwen lay down and snuggled further into the couch and looked over at the window. The rain was still heavily falling against the window, the room lit up once again with the lightning outside. Gwen looked over at Peter as she pulled the blanket up to her chest. "You're not going home in that, are you?"

"Well I don't think it would be a smart idea." Peter answered as he picked up the plates in one hand and one of the candles in the other. The candle didn't provide much light but it helped Peter find his way into the kitchen and put the plates into the kitchen sink. He made his way back into the living room and set the candle back down on the table. "I don't want to leave you alone in the dark."

"And I don't want you to go home in that storm." Gwen giggled, moving on the couch to give Peter room to sit down next to her. "You can spend the night here; my family won't be home until tomorrow evening at the latest."

"I hate power outages. We have nothing to do." Peter said as he lay down next to Gwen. He chuckled at how Gwen moved the blanket so it now covered both of them. "It's too dark to see anything."

"It doesn't matter. We might have the power back in the morning. We are here together so it's okay." Gwen told him, smiling as she snuggled into his warm body. She rested her head on his shoulder as Peter placed his arm around her. They lay there listening to the rain hit the windows of the apartment. Peter gently played with one of Gwen's curls until the rain soothed them both to sleep.


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: First of all, thank for the positive reviews with the first chapter. This chapter was my first time writing Peter as Spider-Man, so hopefully that turned out okay and you will enjoy.**

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter Two<strong>

One week after the power outage, the weather in New York was slowly beginning to improve. It was still raining daily but not as bad as it was the night of the storm. Peter stayed with Gwen that night until the storm eventually calmed down. When the power came back on the next day, Gwen had said it was perfect to stay in and have a movie day. They spent the day cuddled on the couch watching DVD's from Gwen's collection. Peter left later that evening when Gwen's family arrived home.

Currently Peter was sitting at his desk, typing out an assignment for class. He yawned as his fingers continued to bounce off the keys on the keyboard. He typed faster in an attempt to get the assignment finished quicker. He stopped typing and quietly read his work to himself. Feeling too tired to concentrate; Peter saved his assignment and turned off the computer. He grabbed his phone and earphones from his desk and turned off the bedroom light. He sat down on his bed and put in both of his earphones before lying down, pulling the comforter over himself.

Peter turned on one of the playlists on his phone before he opened the internet browser on his phone. He typed 'Spider-Man' into the search bar and read through the results. He never searched for Spider-Man online, since he would always hear what people thought about him on the radio or the news. Spider-Man had always been subject to very mixed opinions, especially since the Lizard incident. He had received praise for saving the city that night. However those who didn't support him went as far as using Captain Stacy's death as a reason why Spider-Man should be kept off the streets. Peter often thought what if he could have done anything to save Captain Stacy. Being the police captain, the news media had reported his death, which only made it harder for Gwen and her family.

After reading the mixed views about Spider-Man, Peter turned off his phone and tossed it to the side of his bed. He rolled over onto his side, pulling the comforter over his head. He closed his eyes and listened to the music playing through his earphones as he began to feel more relaxed.

Peter didn't even realise he had fallen asleep until he heard the sound of his phone ringing. He groaned as he pulled the comforter of his of head and looked around. Peter was half expecting the early morning sun to be shining through his window but he found himself in darkness. The night sky provided a dull light through this bedroom window. He pulled out his earphones as he searched the bed for his phone. When he found it, his eyes were very sensitive to the light of his phone. He managed to look at the digital clock on his phone screen with his blurry vision to see it was nearly one in the morning. He hit the answer button when he saw Gwen's photo pop-up on the screen.

"Gwen, are you okay?" He held the phone to his ear as he sat up in the bed. He yawned, rubbing his tired eyes as they adjusted to the dull lighting in the room.

"Sorry, I didn't want to wake you." He heard Gwen say down the phone.

"No, no, it's fine. I told you that you could call me whenever you wanted." Peter reassured her as he moved around so he could sit with his back resting against the wall. "So what's going on?"

"I can't sleep." Gwen admitted, sitting up in her own bed. She was tired but had spent the whole night tossing and turning. She had tried several different things to help her fall asleep but nothing seemed to work.

"Is there something on your mind?" Peter asked as he reached over and turned on the lamp next to his bed. He blinked a few times to adjust to the sudden brightness in the room. He put his hand over his eyes for a moment before rubbing them once again.

"Yeah, there is actually." Gwen told him, playing with the corner of the rose pink and pale yellow knitted blanket on her bed. She sighed before continuing. "I know that we haven't talked about it, but I need to ask you about my father. What happened when you were with him the night died?"

"Gwen…"

"It's just… I'm thinking about him a lot lately. Every time I close my eyes I picture him lying there… in pain. It's horrible, Peter." Gwen bit her lip to stop herself from crying. She didn't want Peter to worry about her. She just needed to know what happened.

"Gwen, listen to me. He wasn't in pain and he wasn't panicked." Peter gently told her. He had decided to tell Gwen he was with her father before he died when they started talking again. He hoped it would comfort her knowing he wasn't completely on his own. "He talked to me before he passed away, that was when he made me promise to stay away from you. I stayed with him until help came."

"I just keep imagining him alone, screaming for help." Gwen said, picking up the light brown teddy bear that was sitting on the end of her bed. Her father bought her the teddy bear for her when she was nine. She slept with the bear every night until she was thirteen; after that she kept the teddy bear sitting on top of her dresser. Since her father's death, Gwen moved the bear back to her bed.

"He didn't die alone, Gwen. I promise you that." Peter told her as he ran his hand through his hair.

Gwen smiled as she played with the ears of the soft teddy bear. "Thank you for telling me, Peter. I needed to hear that."

Peter lay back down on the bed. He picked up his earphones and began twisting the wire around his fingers. "I wish I could have done something more to help him."

"Peter, don't. The police officers who investigated his death said that wouldn't have been able to get him to the hospital on time." Gwen sighed sadly as she fell back onto her pillows, holding the bear close to her chest with her left arm. "I feel better knowing that he had someone with him."

Peter reached up and turned off the lamp, he moved around to get comfortable in the bed. "Is there anything else on your mind that you want you talk about?"

"No, I'm okay. I'm going to try and get some sleep." Gwen told him as she pulled the quilt over herself once again. "I'm sorry I woke you."

"Hey, you can call me at four in the morning if you wanted too." Peter smiled, hearing Gwen giggle down the phone. "Do you want me to walk you to school tomorrow?"

"I have a meeting with the debate club before school starts. How about I'll meet in you in the courtyard after school?" She suggested.

"Okay, I'll see you then. Goodnight Gwen."

He heard Gwen yawning before she answered him. "Goodnight Peter. Thank you."

"Hey, I love you." He said. He heard her say 'you too' before the line went dead. He put his phone on the floor next to his to bed before rolling over and slowly falling back to sleep.

...

Peter had a free period the next morning. Not wanting to sit in study hall for the morning, he decided to go out as Spider-Man until his next class later that morning. He had woken up early enough that morning to finish his assignment at home. He had managed to get on top of his school work so going out as Spider-Man wouldn't interfere with the time he could be using to do his school work. He tried to go out as Spider-Man as much as he could. The harsh weather they had been experiencing had made it difficult for him to go out.

Peter sat on the ledge of a ten storey building, looking down at the traffic below. He listened to the noise of the cars in the morning traffic. He took his phone out of his backpack that was on the ledge next to him. He checked the time to make sure he wasn't going to be late for his other classes. He heard the noise of tyres skidding on the road below. Peter looked down to see a black car swerve towards the pavement, heading towards two children.

After tossing his phone back into the backpack, Peter jumped from the roof of the building. He kept his eyes on the two children as he free-fell to the ground. He shot a web upwards at the building opposite him and swung in the direction in which the out of control car was heading. He could hear screams from people who were about to witness it. Peter managed to push the children out of the way before the car hit them. Since the boy and girl were huddled together, it made it much easier for Peter to hold both of them. Peter snapped the web so he could land on the ground with the children. He was able to help the boy land on his feet; the little girl fell backwards onto the cold ground.

"I don't know what happened; I just lost control of wheel!" The clearly distressed, middle aged man yelled as he got out of the car.

"You need to be careful driving! The roads are lethal because of the rain." Peter calmly shouted towards the man, he saw a small group of people run towards the car to make sure there was no one was hurt. Peter turned towards the two children. The boy had helped the little girl stand up while she brushed the dirt from her jeans.

The girl's bright blue eyes lit up when she looked at Spider-Man. She bobbed on her toes, hitting the boys shoulder with one hand and pointing at Spider-Man with the other. "Kyle, that's Spider-Man!"

Peter chucked as he kneeled down beside the little girl. She didn't look any more than seven or eight years old. She looked up at him in amazement, clearly not concerned by what had just happened. "What's your name, sweetie?"

"Elsa. This is my brother." She said, pointing towards the boy who looked older than her. The two shared a very strong resemblance which made it easy to tell that they were siblings. Elsa brushed one of her chocolate brown curls away her face. "He has your photo on his bedroom wall."

Peter smiled at them even though they couldn't see it through the mask. He got to his feet again and looked at both of them. "How come you two are not in school?"

"We were running late. We are on our way there now." Kyle told him, putting his hands on his sister's shoulders. His hands were slightly shaking; Peter could tell he was a little shaken up by what had happened. "Thank you for saving us."

"Do you want me to walk you both to school?" Peter asked.

"Our school isn't far from here, so I think we are okay." Elsa beamed up at him, showing her missing front teeth. "I can't wait to tell my friends you saved us!" She yelled before running away from the two boys.

"Thank you again for saving us, Spider-Man." Kyle shouted at him before running after his sister. "Elsa! Wait for me!"

Peter smiled under his mask, watching the two run down the sidewalk. Peter ran down the pavement as shot a web upwards at the building; he began swinging above the streets again. He swung around the buildings for a while until he eventually got back to the roof where he had been sitting earlier. He looked over at the clock tower in the distance and realised that his next class was going to be starting soon. He put his arms through the straps of his backpack and jumped from the building again. He webbed through the streets above the New York City traffic. Despite the loud sound of the wind when he was swinging, he could hear several car horns and sirens in the distance.

Peter landed in an abandoned alleyway that not too far from school. He threw his backpack on the ground before quickly pulling out his clothes and putting them on over his suit. He pulled off his mask and gloves before hiding them at the bottom of his backpack. He laced up his black converses and put his backpack over his shoulder again as he began walking to Midtown Science High School.

...

Peter pushed this right foot against the ground to make his skateboard go faster around the empty courtyard of Midtown Science. He put his foot back on the board and leaned from side to side to change direction he was going in. He used the tables in the courtyard as obstacles. He moved away from the tables and began preforming tricks and jumps with the board. Since it was after school hours, no one was there to remind him that skating in the courtyard is not allowed.

Peter always thought of Gwen when he was out in the courtyard, mostly because this was where it all began. He still had the photo he had secretly taken of Gwen reading at the table, which Gwen now knew about it. It was the events out here that day with Flash that lead to him talking to Gwen for the first time. Even though they had a few classes together since they were thirteen, they had never actually had a conversation with each other until that day. Peter was thankful those events happened because he honestly didn't know where his relationship with Gwen would be if all of that didn't happen. He had a crush on Gwen since the first time he saw her in their first year of high school.

He skated in between the tables of the courtyard. He continued using his right foot to push the skateboard along the wet ground. He looked up at the grey, cloudy sky and hoped that it wouldn't start raining before he got home. He put his weight on one side of the skateboard to change the direction it was facing. Shoving his hands into his pockets, he began skating around the courtyard again.

"You know, you shouldn't skate with your hands in your pockets." He heard a familiar voice shout. He looked at the school doors and saw Gwen walking towards him. She smiled at him while hugging her books to her chest. Her blonde curls bounced off her shoulders as she walked towards him. She was wearing a navy coat with a light blue scarf along with dark jeans and black, flat dolly shoes. "If you lost your balance, you won't be able to break your fall."

"When you have been skateboarding for as long as I have, you don't really think about it." Peter laughed as he jumped off the board and picked it up. He walked over to Gwen and giving her a kiss. "Where having you been? I've been waiting for fifteen minutes."

"I'm sorry; I had to take a phone call." Gwen told him as she placed her backpack on the table next to Peters.

"Was it about work?" Peter asked, watching Gwen put the books neatly into her bag. Gwen simply nodded before sitting on the table, resting her feet on the bench. Peter sat down on the bench next to her and looked up at her. "What's going on with it?"

"They just wanted to discuss my working hours." Gwen said, crossing her arms over her knees. She had only recently returned to Oscorp, mainly going back to help with her family's financial income. "They are done with all of Connors work, they made that perfectly clear. They moved my work placement to the robotics division, considering the circumstances."

Peter knew the recent events at Oscorp made it even harder for Gwen to return. Not only was Gwen's father killed there, Gwen was also head intern for the man responsible for his death. "Your dad would be happy to see you back working at Oscorp. You might get some great opportunities out of working there."

"I hate him, Peter… I hate Doctor Connors." Gwen said bitterly, gazing up at the cloudy sky. She sighed as she buried her face into her hands. "I know that sound's awful, but I feel so angry whenever I think of him."

"Hey, it's okay to feel like that." Peter tried to comfort her as he gently patted her knee. "I feel the same way about the guy who shot my uncle."

Gwen moved her hands away from her face and looked at Peter. She had never felt such hatred towards someone before. She never could have imagined one person could cause her family so much hurt. "I've never said that I hated someone before. He was charged with my father's murder but that doesn't seem like enough."

"Gwen, what he did your family is unforgivable. He wasn't in control when he killed your father but your family have to live with that now." Peter told her, moving to sit on the table next to her. He put his arm around her and gently squeezed her shoulder. "It's perfectly okay to feel the way you are feeling. Gwen, your father wouldn't want you to live with this anger built up inside you. Connors is in the psychiatric hospital so you will never have to see him again."

"I know, I guess I'm just having a really bad day," Gwen said, resting her head on Peter's shoulder. "Thank you for being there for me."

"I'm just sorry I wasn't there from the beginning." He told her as he kissed the top of her head. He rested his cheek against her soft blonde hair while he gently rubbed her arm.

"We spoke about this, Peter. I'm not mad at you about that." Gwen lifted her head and looked into Peter's brown eyes. "I love you, Peter."

Peter leaned in and kissed Gwen while gently running his fingers through her curls. When they broke apart, Peter gently rubbed his nose against hers, causing her to giggle as she wrapped her arms around Peter's neck.

"Hey, I think I know how to cheer you up." Peter said as he stood up on the bench. He stepped down onto the concrete ground and picked up his skateboard. He smiled as he held it towards Gwen. "I'm going to teach you how to skateboard."

Gwen raised her eyebrow slightly while giving Peter a confused look. She glared at the old, worn out skateboard in his hands before shaking her head. "No, thank you. I think I'm good."

"Oh, come on. It will be fun." Peter laughed as he held out his hand towards Gwen. Gwen looked at his hand before giving him an unsure look. "Trust me, I won't let anything happen." Gwen hesitated for a moment. Finally, she took Peter's hand and moved off the table. He gently pulled her towards him.

"I can't believe your making me do this." Gwen crossed her arms, watching Peter place the skateboard on the ground on front of her. He walked around to the other side of the skateboard so he was now facing Gwen.

"Okay, just stand on the board." Peter instructed as he took both of Gwen's hands. Gwen held onto Peter's wrists as she put her right foot on the board. Peter moved his foot on front of the wheel to stop it from moving. Gwen lifted her left foot onto the board; it slightly wobbled causing Gwen to tighten her grip on Peter's wrists.

"If I fall from this, I will kill you!" Gwen warned, trying to keep her balance on the board. Peter chuckled as he gently moved his arms from Gwen's tight grip so he could now hold both her wrists firmly.

"I'm not going to let you fall; I'm here to catch you." He promised her while moving his foot away from the wheel. He lightly pulled Gwen's arms, taking a few steps backwards while standing on front of the skateboard. "Now, use your right foot to move the skateboard." Gwen cautiously put her foot to the ground, only moving the board slightly.

"Peter, I really don't like this." Gwen laughed nervously as the skateboard began to move a little quicker. Peter chuckled as he moved to Gwen's side, putting one arm across her back to support her while he also held her hand. He walked alongside her at the slow speed the skateboard was going.

"You are doing great. Now put your foot on the board again." Peter encouraged. When Gwen had both of her feet on the board again, Peter continued walking along while holding onto Gwen. "Okay, I think you're ready to skate on your own, so I'm going to let you go."

"Don't even think about it!" Gwen snapped. Peter laughed, putting his foot on the skateboard to prevent it moving while Gwen got off. When Gwen moved away from it, Peter leaned down and picked it up. He looked over at Gwen who was back at the table, placing the straps of her backpack on her shoulders.

"Hey, do you want to try to skate on the ramps now?" Peter asked, laughing even more because of the serious glare Gwen was giving him. He held the skateboard with his left hand whilst wrapping his right arm around Gwen's shoulders; he leaned in until his lips met hers. He smiled when the pulled apart, he softly pressed his nose against her temple. "You didn't do too badly with your first lesson."

"It was a little bit fun but I'm not a skateboarder." Gwen told him, she looked up at the sky which was only getting darker. She slightly shivered as she put her hands into her coat pockets. "Can we go now before it starts raining again?"

Peter nodded; he removed his arm from Gwen's shoulders and picked up his backpack from the table. Throwing the strap over his shoulder, he took Gwen's hand as they walked together from the courtyard.

* * *

><p><strong>AN: I hope you enjoyed reading this. I just wanted to point out something that I couldn't say before the chapter. As I mentioned in this last chapter, even though this was based on the movies, I looked at the video games too. So that was where I got the idea to have Gwen moved at Oscorp. So basically I mixed the movies very slightly with the game to make my story. Hopefully you'll enjoy what I have planned later in the story. Anyway I hope you enjoyed and let me know what you think.**


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N: Alright, this chapter has a good bit of Peter and Gwen fluff. This is also the chapter which starts the plot to the story. I'm slightly scared about it. As you'll see, I've changed things a little bit. Anyways, I hope you like it.**

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter Three<strong>

"So to find the volume, you need to multiply the length by itself twice." Gwen explained, pointing to the math problem in the book with the tip of her pen. "Try to work out the answer." She told her youngest brother, before reaching over the dining table and moving the calculator on front of Simon.

Gwen watched as Simon's tiny fingers move over the buttons of the old worn out calculator. Simon pressed the equal key and picked up the calculator to see the answer on the small screen. He looked his sister with a hopeful look on his face. "The answer is sixty-four."

"Good job, buddy!" Gwen praised her little brother, ruffling his sandy blonde hair. She stood up from the chair and pushed it into the dining table. She moved behind Simon's seat, gently placing her hands on his tiny shoulders. "See, it isn't that difficult. You finish the rest of your work; just call me if you need some help."

Gwen watched Simon lift his pencil and start writing in his notebook again. She wondered into the kitchen to see Philip standing at the kitchen counter, putting a bottle of water into his backpack. He was dressed neatly in a shirt under his navy jacket.

"Where's Howard?" Gwen asked, noticing her brother was nowhere to be seen. She opened the fridge and took out a bottle of water. She closed the fridge and leaned against door, looking at her oldest brother.

"He's in our bedroom. I think he is doing homework." Philip told her while zipping up his backpack. "Is Peter coming over today?"

"Yeah, he's coming over after dinner to watch a movie." Gwen answered before she unscrewed the cap of the bottle and took a mouthful of water.

"Can I ask you something?" Philip asked, turning around to look at his only sister. Gwen nodded, swallowing the water. "Where was Peter when dad died? Your friends from school came to visit you but he didn't."

Gwen sighed as she twisted the cap back onto the bottle. "He just felt I needed some space and some time alone with you, mom and the boys. His uncle died a few weeks before dad did so he understood what we were going through. Why are you asking? I thought you liked Peter."

"I do like him. He's cool but I just don't want him to hurt you." Philip told her. "I saw how upset you were that day when you went to his house. You never told us what happened."

Gwen smiled, feeling thankful to have a protective brother like Philip. Even though Philip was two years younger than her, he was much taller than she was. Anyone who didn't know the Stacy family would most likely think that Philip was older than Gwen. "Phil, you really don't need to worry about me. I'm okay."

"I know but your my only sister, I just don't want to see you get hurt." Philip said. He was younger but he was always looking out for his big sister. He and Gwen were very close, mainly because she was his only sister. Also after Philip was born, Gwen loved the big sister responsibility.

"Hey, I'm the oldest. Remember? I'm meant to be looking out for you guys." Gwen laughed as she stood up on her toes and wrapped her arms around Philips neck. Philip hugged her tightly. Gwen pulled away and looked at Philip. "Peter won't hurt me, okay? He's not like that. Don't worry about him."

"Gwen!" Simon called as he ran into the kitchen. "Gwen, can I have one of the yogurts from the fridge?"

"Those are for later. Have you finished your homework?" Gwen asked. Simon nodded while watching Gwen get down on her knees on front of him "Well how would you like to help me get dinner ready? We can surprise mom when she gets home from work." A huge smile appeared on Simon's face as he nodded.

"Sis, I have to go. I have a meeting the debate team." Philip told her, picking up his bag and throwing it over his shoulder. He patted Simon's head before walking out of the kitchen. "I'll see you guys later."

"Have fun." Gwen called to him as she picked up Simon and sat him down on the kitchen counter. She kept her arm wrapped around the small boy's waist while opening the cupboard with her free hand. "Okay, I'm not an amazing cook like mom. So we need to find something easy to make."

"How about we make pasta?" The young boy suggested, pointing to the bag of dried pasta shells in the cupboard.

"Hmm… Not a bad idea, Simon." Gwen took the bag out of the cupboard and placed it on the counter. "I have made this before so I'm not worried about burning the apartment down." Simon laughed as Gwen took his hands and helped him down from the counter.

"So what do we have to do?" Simon asked with an excited look on his face.

"I'll get the saucepan and you get the celery and the onions." Gwen said as she held up her left hand so Simon could reach. "Sound good?" Simon nodded before he jumped up and gave his sister a high-five.

...

Norman Osborn watched from the office window as the sun set over New York City. The office on the 95th floor was lit up by the orange glow from the sunset outside. Norman turned away when the strong light shining through the window began to cause strain in his eyes. Donald Menken came into the naturally lit office, seeing the silhouette of the Oscorp founder's wheelchair on the opposite side of the room.

"Mr Osborn." Donald greeted as he walked over to his desk and sat down on the chair. He watched Norman's fingers on his right hand work the controls on the electric wheelchair. Norman looked visibly weaker since his last visit to the Oscorp Tower. Norman moved his chair to the opposite side of the desk to face Donald. "How are you feeling today?"

"I'm dying. How should I feel?" Norman stated, looking away from Donald and slightly moving his wheelchair to the side. The Retroviral Hypodisplasia had slowly and painfully progressed to the point where he was now wheelchair bound. He was too weak to that he couldn't even stand. He could walk for very short periods of time with the aid of a walker. The disease was now showing even more with his skin turning a light shade of green and becoming more deformed. "I'm dying from this disease. No one seems to give a damn. They gave up trying to find a cure."

"No one gave up on finding a cure, Norman. You know they had to stop after the incident with Connors." Donald said, not even knowing what he could say. He had been warned that sooner or later the disease will affect Norman's mental state. Knowing this could be the first signs, he decided to change the subject. "Is Harry coming home?"

"Yes he is. I never told him that this is genetic." Norman glared out the large windows. He looked at his personal assistant and let out a frustrated sigh. "He's coming home to see his dying father and to find out he is going to die from the same thing since our scientists have given up on finding a cure."

"Harry is young. There will be a breakthrough before anything happens to him." Donald tried to reassure him even though he knew he couldn't. He opened the files that were placed across his lap. "So you wanted to discuss a topic for the next board meeting."

"It's not for a board meeting. I want to Connors and Ratha's work to start again." Norman stated, slightly adjusted his position in the wheelchair. "Their work was an attempt to cure me and now everyone has quit the work."

"Norman, Oscorp is going to be put under the spotlight if we continue with this experiment. It's too dangerous to continue with and we are still dealing with the lawsuits." Donald tried to explain. "Ratha was killed and Connors is now locked up in Beloit. That is why these experiments were dropped."

"If we continue with the work there will be progress, which will lead to a breakthrough. We can fix whatever went wrong with Connors work." Norman demanded, his left hand forming into a fist. "I need this if I'm going to be cured!"

"If we have another incident like the lizard, it will destroy us!" Donald looked though the files that documented the effects the experiment had. "Connors has been charged with a number of damages to the city. He was responsible for the deaths of twenty-three people. One of them was the Captain of the NYPD; his daughter also happens to be an intern here. She was head intern to Doctor Connors."

"Where is this girl now that Connors is gone?" Norman asked.

"She was moved to the robotics research facility for the duration of her internship. She now interns for Doctor Alistaire Smythe." Donald continued to browse through the files, reading the information. "We swore to that girl that these experiments were over."

"We can continue the work in secret. Choose our scientists carefully; keep all files related to it out of the Oscorp computers." Seeing that Donald wasn't paying attention to anything he was saying, Norman slightly leaned forward in the wheelchair to give his assistant a serious look in the eyes. "I don't care how we do it, I just want it done. I will choose who will be working with me. Tell no one this meeting between us happened!"

Donald placed his head in his hands has he watched Norman wheel out of the room. He sighed as he collected the files. He could have gathered the world greatest scientists together and they would all say the same thing; nothing could be done to save Norman Osborn. They could find a cure, but by the time that happens, Norman will be long dead. Donald didn't know how this was going to work out. One thing was for sure, it wasn't going to be good.

...

"Peter!" Simon greeted as he opened the door the apartment. He moved over to let Peter in before closing the door.

"How are you doing, buddy?" Peter asked, putting his hand on the younger boys head and messing up his hair. "You need to stop growing! You are going to be taller than me soon." He walked through the apartment and saw Gwen in the kitchen, helping Howard with the dishes.

"Hey!" Gwen smiled when she turned around saw Peter standing there. She put the dishtowel on the counter and went over to Peter, putting her hands around his neck and giving him a quick peck on the lips. "Do you want some dinner? Simon and I made pasta."

"No thank you. I had some dinner with Aunt May before I left." Peter told her as he wrapped his arms about Gwen's waist. "It must have turned out good since the kitchen in still in good condition." He joked.

Gwen's jaw dropped as she playfully slapped his shoulder. "Hey, you have never tried my cooking! So you are not allowed to judge me." Gwen laughed as she pulled away from Peter. "Did you remember the movies?"

"Ah… I brought the scariest ones I could find." Peter reached into his backpack and pulled out the two DVD cases. He held them out towards Gwen to take. "You can pick which one we watch."

"Why did you have to bring scary movies?" Gwen looked up at Peter, slightly pouting as she took the DVD's from him. She looked at the DVD covers of the two unfamiliar movies.

"You picked the movie last time. Remember I said I wanted to watch horror movie?" Peter gave her an innocent smile. He couldn't help but laugh gently at the unenthusiastic look Gwen was giving him. "By the way, can I borrow from antiseptic wipes from your first aid box?" Peter rolled up the sleeve of his black sweater to reveal a large, raw scratch on his arm.

"Oh my god…" Gwen gasped, causing Howard to look over from where he was standing at the kitchen sink. Gwen gently ran her fingers over Peter's arm. She looked closely at the red, raw scratch. "What happened?"

"I got this while skateboarding today." Peter told her, knowing she was expecting it to be a Spider-Man related injury. "I fell and we didn't have any antiseptic so I didn't get a chance to properly clean it."

"And you wanted to teach me to skateboard?" Gwen rolled her eyes and smiled while handing the DVD's back to Peter. "Okay you set up the movie in my room. I'll get the first aid box." Gwen told him as she walked down the hallway towards the bathroom.

"Which movie do you want to watch?" Peter called as he held up both DVD's in each hand. Gwen shrugged, turning around and looking at Peter. Without even looking at the DVD's, Gwen pointed to the one in his left hand before turning around and walking into the bathroom. Peter walked towards Gwen's bedroom, seeing Gwen's mother in the living room on the phone. He waved at her was walked past the living room. Helen smiled and returned the gesture. Peter went into Gwen's room to find her computer already turned on. He opened the computers disk tray and put in the DVD that Gwen choose.

"Here you go." Gwen came in and handed Peter two small packs of antiseptic wipes. Peter thanked her as he opened the packs sat down on her bed. He began cleaning the cut on his arm while Gwen leaned over her desk and began setting up the DVD on the computer. Peter stood up and tossed the packs into the wastebasket next to Gwen's bedroom door.

"I think I'm going to buy you a TV for your room as a birthday present." Peter said, observing how Gwen was adjusting the computer monitor so it was now facing the bed. She put her right hand on the mouse and started up the movie.

"What is the point? You know I don't watch that much TV." Gwen answered as she climbed onto her bed, resting her back against the wall. "Besides, I have the computer monitor to watch my DVD's on." She patted the space in the bed next her. Peter smiled as he got onto the bed next to her and switched off her light.

...

Over an hour into the movie, Gwen had her face buried into her brown teddy bear. Peter laughed at the tight grip she had of the bear. As the movie went on, it went from Gwen covering her eyes with her hands to using the bear as a shield. Peter was almost surprised that Gwen wasn't covering the teddy bears eyes. He put his arm around her and laughed. "Hey, I thought you liked scary movies?"

"I do like scary movies, when I choose them." He heard her muffled voice come from behind the bear. Peter gently tried to pull the bear away but Gwen only held onto it tighter. Gwen cuddled into Peter's side, not moving the bear away from her face.

"Are you going to watch any of it?" Peter asked as ran his fingers through her hair. Gwen cautiously moved the bear away from her face. She held it close, getting ready to hide behind it again when something scary happened.

"How are you not freaked out of by this?" Gwen said, moving closer to Peter's side. She normally didn't mind watching scary movies, but the amount of scary scenes in this movie was enough to freak her out.

"Maybe it's because I have seen this movie before." Peter mumbled, turning away from Gwen. The way Gwen sat up on the bed and glared at him, told him that she had heard what he said.

"What?" Gwen snapped with a shocked look on her face. She picked up one of her pillows and began hitting Peter with it. "I'm going to kill you!" She yelled. Peter jumped of the bed and ran to the other side of her room; he had tears of laughter in his eyes because of Gwen's reaction. Instead of chasing him, Gwen stayed where she was on the bed and threw the pillow at Peter.

"Hey, you chose the movie!" Peter quickly defended himself while trying to control his laughter. He put his hand to stomach as he began to laugh even more.

"You could have warned me about the scary scenes!" Gwen grabbed another pillow and held it up, threatening to throw it at him. "If I have nightmares because of this, I'm blaming you!"

"Come on, it's not that bad." Peter chuckled as he threw the pillow back at Gwen. Gwen playfully pouted at him, crossing her arms and turning her back to him. "I know you can't stay mad at me, Gwen." Peter climbed back onto the bed behind her, wrapping his arms around her. He began planting several kisses on her on her neck, gradually moving up to her cheek. He could see her smiling even though she was trying to hide it. "Gwendy…"

"No one has called me that in years." Gwen laughed as she turned around and wrapped her arms around Peter's neck. She leaned in and kissed him as they both lay down on her bed. The movie was now completely forgotten about.

"So, do you forgive me?" Peter asked, playing with a stand of Gwen's wavy hair. He gently tucked the strand of hair behind Gwen's ear. Gwen playfully shook her head and laughed. She ran her fingers through Peter's hair.

"You are going to have to work for my forgiveness, Bug-Boy." She teased while rubbing her nose against Peters. "I haven't decided what I what you to do yet."

"Oh, fine then." Peter chuckled as he pulled Gwen closer to him, he was about to kiss her again when he heard the text alert on his phone. Peter sighed as he gently pulled away from Gwen. "Who could that be?" He rolled over and grabbed his phone from where he left it on Gwen's bedside table. He read the text on his touch-screen phone before turning back to Gwen. "It's my Aunt May, she forgot her key. I have to get home before she does so I can let her in."

Gwen watched as Peter got off the bed and put his converse back on. Gwen stood up from her bed, picking up and bobbin from her bedside table and tying her hair back into a messy ponytail. "If you buy me a coffee on the way to school tomorrow, I will consider forgiving you."

"You will only consider forgiving me?" Peter joked while picking up the cases. "Would you like to borrow my DVD's and watch the rest of them"

"No!" Gwen said sharply, going over to the computer and opening the disk tray. She took out the disk and handed it to Peter before working to shut down her computer. "You are never choosing the movies again, okay?"

When Peter put on his jacket, he went over to Gwen and wrapped his arm around her, gently kissing her forehead. "I know you didn't like it, but I had fun watching it with you."

"I enjoyed it too, even though I didn't even watch the movie." Gwen giggled, resting her head on Peter's shoulder. "So are you going to leave through the door or the window?"

"Maybe I'll use the door." Peter said, pointing towards the door. Gwen opened her bedroom door and walked Peter down the hallway of her apartment. The living room and kitchen were deserted since her family had gone into their bedrooms.

Gwen stood up on her toes and kissed Peter goodnight before opening her apartment door. "Thank you for coming over. I love you."

"I love you more." Peter argued as he threw his bag over his shoulder as he walked out of the apartment. "Goodnight Gwen."


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N: First I just want to say thank you for the positive feedback. I really appreciate it. This is a very short chapter. This is my first attempt at writing an action scene, so hopefully you'll like it. Also another character will be introduced in this chapter. So as always, I hope you enjoy.**

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter Four<strong>

"Everybody get down on the floor, now!" The masked man with a strong New York accent roared whilst pointing the loaded gun at the customers and employees. "Get on the floor right now or else!" He turned towards the other two masked men who held up the jewellery store with him. "I'm watching these guys. Get to work on the stuff!"

The two other masked men used their guns to smash through the glass cabinets. They quickly pulled the jewellery out of the cabinets with their gloved hands and shoved them into the black duffle bags they were carrying. The sound of the hostages terrified cries were drowned out by the noise of glass smashing. The loud security alarm blared through the now destroyed store, telling the robbers that the police were now alerted.

"Who tripped the alarm?!" The man with the New York accent yelled, pointing the gun at the staff members. "Who was it?!" He placed his finger on the trigger about to fire a shot when he heard the noise of glass shattering over at the entrance. The gun was snatched from the gunman's hands before he could even react to the sudden noise. He turned around to see Spider-Man standing at the newly smashed window at the front of the store.

"How did he know we were here?" The second gunman who had a southern accent shouted. "How did he know?"

Peter shot a web at the gunman who was watching the hostages, the web stuck to the man's stomach. Peter used all his strength pull the web, dragging the robber towards him. Peter grabbed him by the collar of his jacket and used his right arm to shove him against the wall. The gunman fell backwards, hitting his head on the wall, leaving him slightly dazed. Without moving from the spot where he was standing, Peter shot two webs at the robbers arm. One web hit his hand, pinning it to the wall. The other web latched onto his forearm.

"C, get him!" He shouted, while struggling to free his now pinned arm.

"Oh, so guys call each other by initials when committing crimes like this?" They heard Spider-Man say before the second gunman began shooting at him, causing the workers and costumers to panic. Peter moved rapidly to avoid the flying bullets aimed at him; he jumped over the wooden counter and used it as cover. When the man stopped shooting, Peter quickly jumped up onto the top of the counter. "I hope you have a name that's not easy to guess!"

Peter shot a web and pulled the gun away from the robber. He swung the web around him, making the gun fly in a full circle before hitting the gunman and knocking him to the ground. Peter vaulted over the unbroken cabinet to towards the robber on the ground; he did the same procedure of webbing his wrists to the marble floor to keep him down until the police got to him.

"At least the police won't have any trouble finding you." Peter said before he looked around for the third robber to see that he had managed to escape. Peter ran to the door, doing a front flip over one of the broken glass cabinet that was destroyed in the ciaos. He got outside of the store that was now surrounded by police cars and armed officers.

"Witnesses seen one suspect heading north on foot. We have officers in pursuit." Peter heard one of the officers yell. He webbed upwards at the building across from him and began swing down the street until he eventually saw a familiar figure dressed all in black, running down the street with three officers' close behind him.

Peter landed on a window ledge on the second floor of the building further down the street. He shot a web as the criminal ran under the window; the web caught him onto this back. Peter held onto the web forcefully pulled the web back towards him, causing the thief to be taken off his feet and be pulled backwards when the web stretched.

Peter watched the police surround the thief, holding him down on the ground and handcuffing him. Peter let out an exhausted sigh through his mask. He put his gloved hand to his forehead and lean back, resting his head against the window. "Well, that was fun."

...

"Good evening." Donald Menken greeted one of Norman's nurses as he arrived at Norman's hospital room. "How is he doing today?"

"No improvement but he isn't doing any worse." The nurse informed him, glancing down at the chart she was holding in her hands. "He walked for a few minutes with the aid of a walker."

"At least he's not fully confined to the wheelchair." Donald said before going into the hospital room, even though everyone close to Norman knew that very soon he'll be dependent on the wheelchair. Donald blinked a few times while his eyes adjusted to the dull lighting in the room. Norman was sitting up in his bed, propped up by some pillows behind him. "Good evening Norman." Donald sat down on the chair by his bed.

"Menken. How did the board meeting go?" Norman asked, taking his eyes away from the small TV in his hospital room.

"Alistaire Smythe was more than happy to supervise the work when I mentioned you would give funding for the Robotics Facility." Donald said, placing files with the workers information on the bed. "I know you want to keep this small, so I have chosen Doctor Morris, Doctor Whelan and Doctor Storm to be involved with the case."

"Are all of these employees are trustworthy? No one can know that this is happen, at least until we get our breakthrough." Norman asked while reading through the files. "When we get our breakthrough, that's when Smythe gets his funding."

"Each one of them has some knowledge of Connors work. They all know and understand what will happen if the public finds out." Donald explained while crossing his arms. "Norman, what about Miss Stacy? We told her family this was over and as I said before, she is also working in the Robotics Facility."

"Don't worry about her. Her internship will be over in June and she'll no longer be working for Alistaire. Just make sure she never finds out." Norman leaned back into the bed. They both remained silent; the only noise in the room was the news report on the TV. "I trust you with this, Menken. We can't let anything stop us this time."

"_Eleven people had their lives saved by Spider-Man this morning after a jewellery store robbery just outside of Manhattan. The web-crawler, who has been subject to much debate these past few weeks, was able to stop three armed robbers after they entered the store. No one was injured in this incident."_

"You know, if he wasn't for him we would have found a cure by now." Norman said bitterly as he raised his head weakly and looked at Donald.

"That's nonsense, Norman." Donald told him. "Spider-Man stopped Connors from infecting the whole city. It's not his fault we had to quit Connors work."

"If Connors wasn't locked up, we would have been able to finish his work and find a cure for this." Norman spat. "No one is going to stop us now. Not even Spider-Man."

Donald sighed and shook his head. He assumed that it was just tiredness from his illness talking. Donald decided to drop the subject; he just picked up the files and began sorting through them.

...

Peter walked down the street towards his house, looking down at his phone while his thumb moved around the touchscreen. He had changed back into his street clothes just after the events at the jewellery store. Feeling too tired to web home, he decided to get the subway back to his house. With Gwen coming over for dinner later, Peter had mentally planned to crash out in his bedroom for an hour before she came over.

"Damn it!" He heard an unfamiliar female voice say while he walked up the steps of his front porch. He looked back towards the pavement to see the girl kneeling down on next to a motorbike, which was parked on front of the house next door.

"Hey, are you okay?" Peter called as he walked back down the steps.

The girl, who looked around the same age as him, looked up at him and slightly chuckled. "Yeah, I'm fine. I just caught my finger with the bike stand." Peter could see a small bit of blood forming on her index finger on her left hand. "Do you have any Band-Aids?"

"Yeah we should, I'll be right back." Peter ran up the steps of the porch and went into the house. He threw his backpack against the wall before going upstairs to the bathroom and looking through the medicine cabinet. He got a Band-Aid out of the box and went back to the front door. He saw the girl was now standing on his porch waiting for him.

"Here you go." Peter handed the bandage the red haired girl.

"Thank you. If I do this while fixing the bike, who knows what will happen when I am actually riding it." She laughed while beginning to bandage her finger. "I'm Mary Jane, by the way. I'm Anna Watson's niece."

"I'm Peter. I've actually met your aunt before, she's very good friends with my Aunt May."

Mary Jane laughed, rolling her eyes brown eyes. "Oh I have heard loads about your aunt. I haven't met her but I feel like I know her."

"Are you staying with her at the moment?" Peter asked, lightly tossing his phone between both of his hands.

"I'm living with her until the end of summer for now." Mary Jane leaned against the fence of the porch. "I'm going to school here at the moment. I'm still trying to figure out what I want to do."

"So are you going to Midtown Science?" Peter asked, placing his phone on the porch fence.

"I am. I'm repeating my junior year though; maybe that's why I haven't seen you before." Mary Jane told him. She looked down at Peter's phone on the fence of the porch. "She's really pretty."

Peter gave her a confused look before noticing that Mary Jane's eyes were focused on his screensaver, which was a photo of him kissing Gwen on the cheek. "Ah… That's my girlfriend, Gwen."

"I kind of guessed that." Mary Jane laughed as Peter picked up the phone and slid it back into his jeans pocket.

"Speak of the devil." Peter smiled, seeing Gwen walking down the street. "There she is now." Gwen smiled and waved to Peter when she saw him at the porch. She was wearing a black knee length skirt along with a white blouse, pink blazer and black ankle boots. When Gwen reached the porch, Peter put his arm around her and greeted her with a kiss. "Hello beautiful."

"Hello handsome. I'm a little early." Gwen giggled before looking at the unfamiliar girl on front of her. "Hi, I'm Gwen." She said, holding out her hand.

Mary Jane smiled as she shook Gwen's hand. "Hey, I'm Mary Jane or MJ. I'm Peter's neighbour."

"I've never seen you before." Gwen gave her a friendly smile as she crossed her arms. "Did you move here recently?"

"This is my aunt's house. I'm just staying here until the end of the summer." Mary Jane explained.

"Are you still in high school?" Gwen asked.

Mary Jane nodded and smiled, leaning back on the porch fence. "Yeah, I was just telling Peter that I'm repeating junior year. It's not going great; I'm struggling with a few subjects."

"I could help you if you want." Gwen offered. "I tutor some people from school maybe we can plan to meet up some day at school when I'm not working."

"Gwen here is a bit of a genius." Peter said gently squeezing Gwen's shoulder. Gwen laughed and playfully hit his stomach.

"Anyway, just let me know if you are interested." Gwen told Mary Jane.

"I might take you up on that offer. We can work something out later." Mary Jane nodded, crossing her arms. "I have to go and finish working on this bike." She groaned before walking back down the steps of the porch.

"It was nice meeting you." Gwen called over while walking into Peter's house.

"Try not to get injured again." Peter joked as he followed Gwen inside and closed the door. Gwen sat down on the couch and fell back into the cushions, closing her eyes and folding her arms on front of her chest. Peter sat down on the couch beside her and places his hand on her shoulder. "Have a long day in work?"

"It was a very long day." Gwen nodded, moving around so she could now face Peter.

"I guess working in robotics was not what you were expecting…"

"Not at all…" Gwen gently shook her head. Her elbow rested against the back of the couch and her head of supported with the palm of her hand. "You know, I'm not even enjoying working there anymore. I'm still working there because I need to help support my family, now that it's only my mom."

"It's only a few weeks until your internship ends. It won't be much longer. You can get a job in something you actually like while you are applying for college." Peter tried to assure her, moving her bangs away from her eyes. "I'm sure the robotics facility isn't that bad."

"It's interesting but not what I want to do. Also I'm mostly working on the computer." Gwen told him before she took Peter's hand in hers.

"Well you'll be out of there soon." Peter said, gently kissing her hand.

"I have been looking at universities to study molecular biology." Gwen grinned. "That's what I want to study."

"I know that. You will be fantastic." Peter laughed lightly. "What universities have you looked at?"

"I've looked at a few. I've looked at a few universities here… I've looked at Oxford." Gwen told him. Peter gave her a surprised but shocked look. "I wasn't going to tell you until I was sure, but there is a scholar's programme. If I applied it would probably take months to hear back but I'm thinking about applying for it. I have everything filled out; I just need to send them"

"You're thinking about moving to England?" Peter asked. He still had a surprised look on his face. Gwen had mentioned Oxford on a handful of occasions before but she had never talked about actually applying. Peter knew this would be an amazing opportunity for her. He was completely supportive of whatever Gwen was going to do.

"Yeah, but it will probably take a year and there is so much I have to do. I have to send the applications and get some college recommendations. I'll have to go through the whole interview process." Gwen explained, the look on her face told Peter that she was excited and eager to apply. "Nothing is guaranteed yet. So we will have to wait and see what happens."

"Go for it." Peter told her with an encouraging smile. "Don't think about it, do it. Send those applications. Oxford will love you."

Gwen smiled as she moved closer to Peter, wrapping her arms around him. "Whatever happens after graduation, we are going to do it together, right?"

Peter smiled lightly as he leaned in and kissed Gwen. "I'm going to go wherever you go. I promise."


	5. Chapter 5

**A/N: Well, here is chapter five. This is a much longer chapter compared to my last one. I'm really happy to see you guys like the story so far and I want to thank you for all the positive comments. I really appreciate them. I hope you enjoy this chapter!**

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter Five<strong>

"You were actually considering getting me a Vespa?" Peter asked as he shut the refrigerator, holding a bottle of water in his hand. He sat up on the counter and looked at Aunt May who was standing at the sink, cleaning the dishes they had used for lunch.

"Well, you got your permit to drive one of those things, right?"

Peter nodded and laughed. "Did you consider getting me a dirt bike?"

Aunt May turned around and pointed a warning finger at Peter, even though she knew he was joking. "Hey, just consider yourself lucky that Uncle Ben talked me into getting you a bike in the first place. I would much rather that you got a licence to drive a car."

"So how did this even come up?" Peter asked.

"We wanted to get you something nice for your graduation present." She told him as she picked up the dishtowel and began drying the dishes. "I mean, you are hopefully going to college and work soon, you can't fully rely on the subway to get you everywhere. Plus that skateboard isn't going to take you very far."

"Yeah, my skateboard does need new wheels." Peter joked.

"Look, since your Uncle Ben passed away, we have to be careful with our finances. We will try to work out your college fees first, and then we will work on getting you the bike. Sound good?" Aunt May asked.

"Let me help you with the bills." Peter said, knowing money wasn't great for his aunt since she was working and she had just begun nursing training at the hospital.

"You can help me by getting into college." She smiled at him, folding the dishtowel and placing it on the counter. "Hopefully with the bike it will be easier to get to Gwen's apartment." Peter smiled to himself, with his web-swinging; it was never a problem to get to Gwen's apartment. Off course he couldn't let his Aunt May know that. "Speaking of Gwen, how is she doing?"

"She's doing well." Peter answered.

Aunt May smiled at her nephew, leaning back against the counter. "How is she doing after her father's passing?"

"She's okay. She hasn't spoken about it much but she seems to be doing okay."

"Gwen is a beautiful girl. She is so strong." Aunt May gently shook her hard and let out a soft sigh. In the small few months she knew Gwen, she grew to love her like a niece. The feeling was clearly mutual; whenever Gwen came over she would sit with Aunt May and have a conversation with her. "Lucky she has you to look after her."

"I'm actually going to go to her place now." Peter told her as he jumped down from the counter. He went over to his aunt and kissed her on the cheek. "I don't know if I will be home for dinner. I will call you later and let you know."

"Okay honey. Have a good day with Gwen." She said, watching him walk out of the room. She knew Peter couldn't be happier when she was with Gwen. Aunt May loved seeing him like that.

...

"It's genetic?!" Norman heard his son shout down the phone. "Thank you for telling me, father!" He sarcastically yelled.

"Son, I'm sorry!" Norman said, his head resting into the pillow. "I was going to tell you when you came here."

"You're sorry?!" Harry shouted. "Just like how you were sorry that you sent me off to boarding school when I was eleven?"

"Son…"

"You know, I was just beginning to think we were about to fix our relationship. We had been making good process these past few months." Harry interrupted. "Then you go and do something like this. I had to learn from my own research that I am going to die from the same thing that is going to kill my father."

"I am not going to die, Harry! Neither are you." Norman slightly yelled down the phone. "It wasn't something I could have told you over the phone. It was something we need to talk about face to face"

"I'm starting to show signs of it." Harry admitted, not shouting as much as he did before. "The hand twitching, I was told that was that was the beginning."

"I have a good team working on it!" Norman insisted. "There will be a cure long before you progress to the point I'm at. I promise you, nothing is going to stop us."

"I believe you." Harry told him.

"Hey, you'll be home in a few more weeks. We have loads of catching up to do." Norman smiled slightly as he moved his phone to his other hand and held it to his ear.

"I have to go. I will speak to you again before I come home." He heard Harry say.

"It won't be much longer." Norman said with a sigh. "Goodbye son." He hung up and phone with his shaking hands and placed it on the bed beside him.

Norman knew this stage of the disease, it was the stage is own father got to just before he died. His fine motor skills were beginning to be affected. Pretty soon the disease will take over his entire body and it will become more and more difficult to simply breathe. That's when the illness will kill him.

All he could do now was the waiting game until the team at Oscorp came up with something that could either cure him or to slow down the progress of the disease. Norman was determined for them to find a cure, not only for him, for Harry too. Norman was not going to let his son suffer like he did. He was most certainly not planning on dying from this.

...

Peter's eyes scanned the door numbers until he found apartment 2016 in Gwen's apartment building. Visiting Gwen's apartment was now so much easier now that the doorman was friendlier towards Peter. Gwen didn't want Peter to have to climb through the window anytime he came over to her apartment. It got to the point where Gwen dragged Peter down to the lobby and introduced him to the doorman. According to Gwen, someone who fights crime and faces danger every night couldn't possibly be intimidated by a doorman. Now when he went to Gwen's apartment, he laughs at that memory.

Peter knocked on the door and waited for someone to answer. He knew Gwen wasn't expecting him to come over until later but he figured it would be a nice surprise for her to come over early. The door opened and Peter saw Helen Stacy standing there. She greeted him with a surprised look.

"Hi Peter."

"Hi Mrs Stacy, how are you?" Peter said with a smile.

"I'm good. What a surprise to see you." She replied with a small smile. "I'm guessing you're here to see Gwen?"

"Yeah, I was meant to come over later but I got here a bit earlier than planned." Peter told her, sensing that something wasn't right. "Is she here?"

"Um… No she isn't. She just left." Helen uneasily looked around and rubbed her nose with the side of her hand, just like what Gwen would do. "She went to the graveyard. Today is her father's birthday." Peter's eyes widened in shock, he put his hand to his mouth to cover the gasp that came out. "Gwen didn't tell you, did she?"

Peter shook his head. "Mrs Stacy, I'm so sorry. I had no idea. I knew his birthday was this month but Gwen never told me it was today."

"Don't worry, Peter. You couldn't have known." Helen smiled gently. "I went with the boys this morning but Gwen said she wanted to go on her own."

Peter shook his head and looked down on the ground. He didn't fully understand why Gwen didn't tell him. "Should I leave and call Gwen later?"

"Actually, I was going to ask you if you could you go and find her?" Helen asked. "I just don't want her out there on her own. I know she will feel better with you there."

Peter nodded. "Yeah, off course. That is no problem at all."

Helen gave Peter a grateful smile. "Thank you very much, Peter."

Peter walked away from the apartment and towards the elevator. He tried to take it all in and understand why Gwen didn't tell him. He rushed from the apartment, wanting to get to Gwen as soon as he could.

...

Gwen held the small bouquet of roses close to her chest as she walked through the graveyard. She shivered due to the chilly air as she walked down the stone covered pavement. She had only been to the graveyard a handful of times since her father's death. She hated going to the graveyard, to her it was just a painful reminder that her father was gone and was never returning. She walked along the path until she came across her father's headstone.

"Hi Daddy," She lightly kissed the top of the black concrete headstone before kneeling down on front it. She softly ran her fingers over the engraving of her father's name. She bit her lip to try and stop her emotions from taking over. "Happy birthday, I got these for you." She gently placed the roses on front of his headstone along with the flowers her brothers had left earlier. "I miss you dad…"

She moved back to give herself room to out her legs on front of her. She crossed one leg over the other as she pulled her bright blue camera out of her coat pocket. It was Gwen's very first digital camera that her parents had got for her on her 15th birthday. She remembered her father was so excited to see her reaction since they got it in her favourite colour. She only used it for family occasions such as birthdays or vacations. After her father's death, she couldn't imagine herself ever using the camera again since family occasions were never going to be the same.

She turned on the camera and flicked through the photos, reminding her of her favourite memories with her family. She looked through the photos of her mom's birthday party, her parent's anniversary party and their little family outings. A large amount of photos on her camera were pictures of the whole family. Gwen's father loved them, whether they were photos Gwen and her brothers or photos of all six of them together. It had turned into a tradition for the Stacy's to get at least one family photo together at every family event.

"Hey…" Gwen turned around at the sudden voice to see Peter standing behind her. He hands in his jacket pockets. He got down on his knees next to Gwen and gently put his arm around her.

"Hey. Did my mom tell you I was here?"

Peter gently nodded as he moved position so he could sit more comfortably on the ground. "Why didn't you tell me it was your father's birthday?"

"I didn't want to make a big deal about it." Gwen slightly shrugged and looked back down at her camera. "It's our first birthday without him, so I thought I should come here and think about all the happy times we had with him… I really miss him, Peter."

"I know." Peter said gently as he kissed the side of Gwen's head. He looked at the camera in Gwen's hand and gently moved the screen towards him so he could see the photo on the screen. Gwen gave him a small smile as she moved the camera so they could both look. Gwen flicked through the photos until she came across a video. She remembered recording it while visiting their extended family the previous summer. She leaned in closer to Peter as she pressed the play button.

_The camera was focused on Howard and Philip playing basketball in their Uncle Jonathan's backyard. The image on the camera was bright due to the summer sunshine. Philip was dribbling the ball from one hand to the other while Howard tried to take it from him. Philip moved away from Howard and threw the ball towards the net; the ball flew over the net and bounced off the wall._

_Gwen's laugh could be heard from behind the camera. "Philip, what was that? You missed the net completely."_

"_He has many talents but basketball is not one of them." Howard said as he looked towards the camera._

_Simon picked up the basketball and threw it towards the net; only the ball didn't even reach the net because of Simon's height. He looked behind him with a disappointed look on his face. "I can't do it."_

"_You just need to grow a few more inches." Philip teased as he handed his little brother the ball again._

"_Try again, Simon." Gwen's voice came from behind the camera again._

"_Hold on. I'll help you, buddy." George Stacy's voice came from the background. He came into the picture and stood behind his youngest son. He lifted Simon up so he could sit on his shoulder and he moved closer to the net. "Okay now throw the ball." George told him._

_Simon threw the ball and got it into the net. George laughed as he put his back on the ground and messed up his hair. "Well done, son."_

Peter's attention was taken away from the video when he heard a sob come from Gwen. He looked at Gwen to see her hand covering her mouth as her body shook with sobs. He took Gwen in his arms and held her close. "Hey… It's okay."

Gwen cried uncontrollably into Peter's shoulder. Her hand curled into a fist as she clutched Peter's jacket. Peter gently shushed her while gently rocking her back and forth. Gwen moved her hand to her face and wiped the tears away from her eyes. "I-I'm s-sorry."

"Hey… It's okay to be upset. Don't apologise."

"T-that was the first time I h-heard his voice since he d-died." Gwen told him between broken sobs. Peter felt his heart break for her, holding her tighter in his arms. He remembered all those nights he would call his voicemail just to hear his Uncle Ben's voice.

"Let it out... It's okay." Gwen buried her head into Peter's shoulder and let out all the emotions she had been keeping to herself in the days leading up to her father's birthday. Peter kept one arm around her while using the other to gently stroke her hair,

Peter rested his cheek against Gwen's soft hair as he softly whispered comforting words to her. He held her until eventually her sobs turned into gentle whimpers. "Thank you coming here, Peter."

"You don't need to thank me." Peter reminded her at he kissed her hair. He looked at George's headstone and sighed as he gently rubbed Gwen's arm. "I know I made a promise to him but I can't stay away from you, Gwen." He heard Gwen sniff. He gently pulled her away from him so he could look at her tear-stained face. "I promise him that I will always protect and take care of you."

"I'm sure he would understand, Peter. As I said before, it's not his choice." Gwen sniffed and closed her red eyes. She felt Peter's thumb gently rub off her cheek as he wiped away one of her tears. "There are so many things I wish I could tell him. I wish he could be here for graduation and to watch me leave for college."

"I know, Gwen. I know." Peter gently told her as he squeezed her shoulder. He wanted the exact same with his Uncle Ben. He and Gwen had each other's support to get through this since Gwen's father died only nine weeks after Uncle Ben. "Your father would be so proud of you." Peter took her hand and held it. He couldn't help but notice how cold Gwen's soft hands were.

Gwen didn't respond. She shivered when she felt Peter's warm hands hold hers. She sighed as she picked up camera up from her lap. She turned it off and slipped it back into her pocket. Resting her head against Peter's shoulder, she used the back of her hand to wipe away the last of the tears from her face.

Peter looked up at the cloudy sky; it was getting darker as the night drew closer. He turned to Gwen; gently kissing her forehead before looking into her watery eyes. "Hey, how about we go back to your apartment and get some cocoa? We can sit out on the fire escape if you want."

Gwen nodded and smiled at him for the first time that day. "Sounds good, I'd like that."

"Let's go before it gets dark." He said while standing up. He held out his hand to her and helped her stand up. Gwen stepped forward towards her father's headstone and placed her cold hand on top of it.

"I love you, dad. I promise I will make you proud." She said as a single tear rolled down her cheek. She looked over at Peter and smiled before turning back to the headstone. "Don't worry about Peter. He will keep me safe. Bye dad." Gwen walked over to Peter and took his hand. Peter gently squeezed her hand as they walked out of the graveyard.

...

"Can you really be trusted driving one of those things?" Gwen giggled while Peter told her about the earlier conversation he had with Aunt May about getting a Vespa. "I don't think I will be comfortable getting on one of them."

Peter chuckled as he pulled Gwen closer to him as they walked down the partly deserted street. "So you will go web-swinging with me but you won't get on a scooter?"

"Hey, I didn't like web-swinging the first time we did it, remember?

"How can I forget? You were absolutely terrified." Peter laughed at the memory of Gwen's head buried into his shoulder as she held onto him for dear life. "But you grew to like it. So maybe the same will happen with the Vespa."

"True, plus I'll be wearing a helmet on the bike so I will feel a little safer." Gwen said.

Before Peter could say anything else, he sensed something was wrong. He could sense something bad was happening nearby. Peter held Gwen closer as he looked around. He looked down at her to see her staring up at him. Gwen could tell that something was wrong. "Go."

"What about you?" He asked.

"Peter, just go." Gwen insisted, gently pulling away from him. "I can get home from here alone."

Peter nodded as he darted towards the alleyway across the street; he turned about and sternly pointed at Gwen. "Go straight home!"

Gwen nodded as she walked down the street in the direction of her apartment. Peter ran into the alleyway and took off his street clothes as fast of possible, wearing the Spider-Man suit under his clothes. He shoved them into his backpack and pulled out his mask and gloves. He put them on as he ran out of the alleyway. He webbed to another alleyway two blacks away. Landing on the ground he saw he saw a beaten man on the ground next to the dumpster a few feet away from him. Standing over him was a man pointing a gun towards him with one hand and holding a wallet with the other.

Peter shot a web at the man with his left hand and pulled the gun away from him. Before the man could react, Peter shot a second web with is right hand and caught the criminal's leg. Peter pulled the web, making the man to the ground. Peter ran and picked the mugger up by collar of his jacket. He noticed the wallet on the ground that the mugger had dropped. Peter picked it up and threw it back to the man by the dumpster. "Get out of here."

As the victim ran away from the alley, the mugger managed to get out of Spider-Man's tight hold and run down the alleyway. "Not so fast." Peter shot a web at him again and pulled him back. Grabbing the mugger's jacket, Peter pinned him to the wall. "What's the hurry? You had time to mug an innocent person on the street; you should have time to wait for the police." Peter grabbed his left hand and webbed it to the wall, that's when Peter noticed something.

There was a tattoo on the man's wrist; a tattoo of a star.

"Maybe you had more crimes to commit? Maybe you were about to rob a store…" Peter said bitterly as he grabbed the man's throat. "Or maybe you have to go and shoot old men and leave them for dead on the street."

"I have no idea what you're talking about." The man gasped.

Peter took a good look at the man's face, he remembered the man that night at the store. They were identical. If they were not the same person, then they had a very disturbing resemblance. "Where were you last September?" Peter tightened his fingers around his neck.

"I don't remember!" The man screamed.

"You shot someone on the street and left them for dead, didn't you?" Peter shouted.

Before anything else could be said, the sound of sirens surrounded them and flashing lights could be seen at the end of the alleyway. Peter let go of the man's neck and took a few steps backwards. A group of police officers rushed towards the man while Peter just stood there. He felt his blood boiling but at the same time he felt so numb that he couldn't do anything.

One of the officers watched as Spider-Man just stood there motionless. The officer slowly approached him, not fully knowing what to say or do. "We can take it from here."

"H-his tattoo…" Peter mumbled from behind his Spider-Man mask. "He matches the description of the suspect who murdered Ben Parker last September."

The officer looked at Spider-Man with a bewildered look and turned towards the mugger. "I will look into it when we get him to the station."

Peter nodded. Despite the fact everything was spinning around him, he managed to run out of the alleyway and web-swing away from there.

...

Gwen looked at her watch and sighed as she leaned back further into her armchair. The longer she waited for Peter, the more she began to worry. She didn't know how long it would take for Peter to get to her apartment and she began to wonder what if something bad had happened to him. She nervously bit her nails as she looked at the screen of her phone. She waited for Peter to call her to let her know what was happening. Her family had gone out for the evening so she had no one there to take her mind off what was happening with Peter. Finally she heard a noise on her fire escape. She jumped out of the chair and ran to the window. She sighed in relief when she saw Peter there wearing his street clothes. She opened the window and moved away so Peter could climb in.

"Thank goodness. I was getting so worried." She said while closing her window, she looked at the way Peter dropped to his knees on her bedroom and grew very concerned. She immediately got down on her knees on front of him and put her hands on his shoulders. "Peter? What happened?"

Peter was in such a daze that he didn't even remember putting his street clothes back on over his Spider-Man suit. He stared blackly at Gwen's bedroom wall. "T-the guy… He had a tattoo… H-he had a tattoo on his wrist."

"Okay… and?" Gwen raised her eyebrow in confusion. Peter was pale, he couldn't even look at Gwen and he was shaking. Gwen was beginning to wonder what Peter saw out there that had him in such a state.

"The guy w-who shot my uncle… He had the same tattoo on his wrist…" Peter swallowed the lump in his throat as tears filled in his eyes.

Gwen's eyes widened as she suddenly realised where this was going. "Oh god, Peter…"

"Gwen…" Peter was taking deep breaths as he tried to keep his emotions under control. "I-I think I just caught my uncles killer." He covered his face with his hands as he burst into tears.

"Hey… It's okay." Gwen pulled him into a tight hug. She gently ran her fingers through his hair. She kissed Peter's head and placed her hand on his cheek. "Hey… they are going to throw him in jail for what he did. There will finally be justice for your uncle."

"I-I didn't know what to do. I was so angry… I wanted to hurt him." Peter admitted. Gwen gave him a sympathetic look as she gently wiped the tears from his face. "I didn't do anything. I just let the police take him."

Gwen wrapped her arms around his shoulders and held him tightly. "You did the right thing. Your uncle would be so proud of you. His killer is probably going to be locked up for the rest of his life and he is going to get what he deserves."

Peter began crying more into Gwen's shoulder. She gently shushed him and rubbed her hand along his back. Peter now cried out of relief that the man who took his uncle away was now off the streets. Gwen gently pulled away from him, keeping her arms around his neck. "We both had a pretty rough day, huh?" Peter nodded, wiping his tears away.

"How about I go and get us some cocoa and we relax on my bed and listen to some music, yeah?" She suggested with a gentle smile.

"Yeah, sounds good." Peter said with a teary smile.

Gwen got to her feet and held out her hands to help Peter stand up. "Come on."

...

"Gwen?" Helen called as she walked into her daughter's bedroom. "Gwen…" She stopped when she saw the two teenagers sound asleep on Gwen's bed. They lay above the covers, snuggled together.

Peter lay on his back, his left hand behind his head while right arm was around Gwen. Gwen was lying on her stomach her right arm was spread across Peter's chest. Her left hand was tucked under her cheek. Peter's iPod was placed on his chest; it continued to play music though the earphones that were still in both Peter and Gwen's ears.

Helen couldn't help but smile at the pair. She quietly went over and disconnected the earphones from the iPod; she removed them from the teenagers' ears before putting the iPod and earphones on the bedside table. Helen thought about waking Gwen up since she had fallen asleep in her jeans and blue t-shirt. She decided to not to disturb them since they both looked exhausted. She knew Gwen must have had a hard day. She imagined the day wasn't easy for Peter since he had been in a similar situation at home. Helen decided she would call Peter's aunt to let her know he was there.

Helen got the knitted blanket from Gwen's armchair and gently placed it over the two. Gwen stirred slightly as her mother tucked the blanket around her, Peter however didn't move at all. Helen brushed the hair away from her Gwen's face and gently leaned down to kiss her forehead. She softly chuckled at the sound of her daughter's light snoring. Helen turned off Gwen's lamp before leaving the room, letting the two grieving teenagers to sleep.


	6. Chapter 6

**A/N: Here's chapter six. I really hope you like it. I have added a little reference to TASM2 game in this chapter, so if any of you are familiar with the game you may be able to spot the reference. Thank you so much for the positive feedback, I really appreciate it. As always, I hope you enjoy the chapter and let me know what you think.**

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter Six<strong>

"This is impossible." Mary Jane groaned as she threw her pencil onto her book. The sound of it hitting her book echoed through the empty library. She rested her elbows on the table and placed her head on her hands.

"You are not trying." Gwen said, sternly. She picked up the pencil and handed it back to Mary Jane. "Come on. You've worked too much to give up now. Do what I told you to do and tell me the solution."

"Do it quick, before Gwen turns into Mr Hahn." Flash chuckled, referring to their extremely strict history teacher who most of the students were afraid of. He had a long reputation of making students cry, starting a tradition of each senior class secretly giving him nicknames.

Gwen shushed Flash, giving him a serious look. She had come up with the idea to tutor both Flash and Mary Jane together since they needed help in the same subjects. It helped make Gwen's schedule a little less busy. She pointed towards the notebook laid out on front of Flash. "Get back to work, Flash."

Mary Jane let out a frustrated sigh as she hit the buttons on the calculator. She picked up the pencil and tapped it against the book as she read the answer. "I got minus two and one over three."

"See? I told you. It's not that hard."

Mary Jane shook her head as she looked at Gwen. "I don't understand how you find this easy."

"You like music, right?" Gwen asked. Mary Jane nodded. "I like singing but I wouldn't find it easy to sing on front of a crowd and I'm hopeless with instruments. So math to me is like music to you." Gwen told her with a small laugh before pointing to the book. "Okay, get started on the next one."

"Umm…" Mary Jane turned the next page and looked through it. "That was actually the last one."

"You're free to go then." Gwen said with a smile, watching Mary Jane close her math book. "You did really well today."

"Am I free to go?" Flash asked, slightly raising his hand as if he were in a classroom.

"Yeah, you can go to." Gwen told him as she looked up at the clock. "I better get to work." She pointed a finger at Flash while giving him a stern look. "Make sure you do your homework."

"How do you do it?" Mary Jane asked as she put her books into her backpack. "You go to school all day, go to work in the evenings and then go home to do a mountain of homework."

"Workaholic, I guess." Gwen laughed as she threw her bag over her shoulder. "It's only an internship until June. After I graduate I can apply for a full time job if there are any available."

"Hey, thanks again for doing this." Mary Jane said as their small group walked out of the school library. "I really appreciate it."

"I'm happy to help. You'll be a math genius before the year is over." Gwen laughed gently hitting Mary Jane's arm with her elbow. They got along really well, even though they only knew each other for a short time.

"It's true!" Flash added, walking just behind the two girls. "Thanks to Gwen, I aced our pop quiz last week."

"I hope so." Mary Jane sighed as she looked at Gwen. "So what's it like to work at Oscorp?"

Gwen shrugged before fixing her light pink blazer. "It's okay. Honestly it's not that exciting. I'm working in the robotics facility right now. I prefer the working in the genetics lab."

Mary Jane nodded. "I saw what happened with the Lizard thing. That was insane."

"I know it was…" Gwen said, looking down at her black ankle boots. She looked away from Mary Jane while pulling a stand of her straightened hair behind her ear.

"I'm surprised they are still working. I mean after those people were killed." Mary Jane continued. She looked at Gwen and noticed how she wouldn't look at her. "Hey, are you okay?"

Gwen sighed and nodded. "Yeah, I'm fine…" She looked at the redhead on front of her and took a deep breath. "It's just…"

"Gwen's father was one of the people killed that night." Flash lightly cut in, placing a supportive hand on Gwen's shoulder.

"Oh… I'm so sorry, Gwen." Mary Jane covered her mouth with her hands and shook her head slightly. "I had no idea."

Gwen smiled sadly and shook her head. "Don't be. You couldn't have known. Four months later and it's still very hard to believe."

"Off course, it's a hard thing to deal with." Mary Jane said as they got the exit of the school. "You know, I'll listen if you ever need to talk or anything."

"Thanks MJ. I appreciate that." Gwen said with a grateful smile. "Just make sure you have your homework done next time we meet up." Gwen slightly glanced at Flash. "Certain people I've been tutoring haven't, I'm not going to mention any names."

"I will do it tonight, I swear!" Flash insisted, making the two girls laugh.

"I'll see you guys on Friday, my place, after school." Gwen said as she walked away from the school.

"Bye Gwen." Mary Jane called before looking up at the tall boy next to her. "So…"

"Umm…" Flash awkwardly rubbed the back of his neck before looking at the red haired girl. "So… Would you like me to give you a lift home?"

Mary Jane smiled and nodded. "Sure."

...

"What is the progress with the research?" Norman asked as himself, Doctor Morris, Alistaire and Donald sat in the meeting room on the 42nd floor of the Oscorp tower. "In our last meeting, it was mentioned that the human trials were starting soon."

"About that…" Doctor Morris began as he read through the files on front of him. "We have done trials on the mice in the lab; we haven't had a positive result yet." He slid the files across the table towards Alistaire.

"All your tests have proved fatal?" Alistaire asked as he leaned over to read the files.

"Not exactly…" Doctor Morris explained. "The tests had a negative impact on the mice. We had mice that became disfigured and changed body shape." He pointed towards the photo of an odd white shape with red and greenish markings; it looked nothing like a mouse. "After making a few changes, the mice we tested showed some violent behaviour. For example they were trying to break down of their tank. All attempts to undo the effect proved fatal."

"So what you're saying is…" Norman questioned, glaring over to the scientist.

"I'm saying we need more time." Doctor Morris fixed his glasses and looked around at the three men sitting at the table. "We started making more changes but with our previous results, it's far too dangerous to do human trials anytime soon."

"So it's being delayed further?" Norman snapped, using the little energy he had to lift himself out of the wheelchair and towards the table. "With the rate we are going, I'll be long dead before there is a cure!"

"Mr Osborn, if we try this on you without a positive result, we are risking something worse than the Lizard." Doctor Morris told him firmly but calmly. He reached across the table and pulled the files towards him.

"He has a point, Norman." Donald took a slip out of his glass of water. "You said yourself that this needs to be kept secret. With all experiments here being closely monitored, we are lucky that we even got this far."

"We have recovered few documents relating to Connors work but the rest were destroyed." Morris told them. "Unfortunately, we are not picking up from where Connors left. We are basically trying to re-trace his steps. He can't exactly ask Connors for help, he is being monitored around the clock now."

"How about we go the lab and discuss what changes need to be made?" Alistaire suggested. "Maybe we can figure out where we are going wrong."

"Good idea." Doctor Morris gathered the files and stood up from the table. "I'll get these back to the office and we can go to the lab." He walked out of the room to see one of the intern scientists walking past the room. "Avery! I need these documents in Norman Osborn's office on the 95th floor."

"B-but I need to get these folders to the lab on the 32nd floor." The young man stuttered nervously. He was already holding two heavy folders in his hands.

"I don't care when you do it, just get them up there." Morris said harshly before placing the documents on top of the folders. He went back into the meeting room, slamming the door behind him.

Avery walked to the elevator and managed to press the button. When the double doors to the elevator opened, he stepped in tried to balance the heavy folders on one arm as he hit the button to go to the 32nd floor. He silently cursed Doctor Morris as the elevator took him to his floor. As he stepped out of the elevator, someone bumped into him causing him to drop the folders and documents.

"I'm so sorry. I didn't see you come out of the elevator." The female voice said.

"That's okay…" He looked at the girls ID badge that was pinned to her blazer to get her name. "…Gwen."

Gwen smiled at the olive-skinned boy as she helped him pick up the documents. "What are you doing with all these? They look very heavy."

"My mentor is just being a jerk, using me as his personal pack mule." He joked, making Gwen laugh.

"Where are these going?" Gwen asked as she gathered the documents that fell out of the thin yellow coloured folder. "I'll take care of them; you have enough to carry there."

"They are going to Norman Osborn's office on the 95th floor." Avery answered, standing up with the folders once again gathered in his arms. "Thanks so much for your help."

"No problem." Gwen smiled before getting into the elevator on her own. As she adjusted her bag on her shoulder, one of the pages slid out of the folder. Gwen picked it up but as she put it back into the folder, the writing on it caught her eye. _'Cross Species Genetics.'_ Gwen looked at it in confusion before opening the folder.

Knowing she was risking her job, she read through the files to find notes relating to Connors experiments. The more she read through them, the more she learned about how they were continuing and making slight changes to Connors previous work. Most of the notes on the page were comparing Connors work, to the work they had already completed so far. She gasped and covered her mouth when she saw each back was dated to the past few days. Gwen got a sick feeling in her stomach when she saw Alistaire Smythes signature on several of the pages. Her mentor, the man who swore to her that this was over, was now working on Connors experiments again.

Gwen was so shocked that she didn't know whether she was going to scream, shout or cry. She leaned back in the elevator as a tear rolled down her cheek. They had lied to her and her family; they were continuing the work that killed her father.

...

"His name is Dennis Carradine." The police officer stated as he put the wanted poster down on the coffee table on front of Peter and Aunt May. "He was arrested three nights ago after mugging a pedestrian at gunpoint in an alleyway. He was wanted for several accounts of armed robbery."

"I'm sorry but what does this have to do with us?" Aunt May asked.

"We have reason to believe this may be the man responsible for your husband's murder." The officer, who had earlier introduced himself as Officer Burke, told them. Aunt May gasped as she covered her mouth.

"Are you sure it's him?" Peter asked, wrapping his arm around his aunt.

"We have looked at the footage from the store that night and Mr Carradine has altered his appearance since last September. However he has a tattoo matching the one the suspect in Ben Parker's murder." The officer explained. "We haven't got a confession yet and we are still gathering evidence, but we are confident that this is our guy."

"So he is off the streets?" Aunt May cried as she hugged Peter tightly.

"We questioning him on suspicion of murder and he will be charged with the mugging and several robberies around Queens." Officer Burke said as he gave them a sympathetic smile. "We should have enough evidence to charge him with the murder."

"Thank god!" Aunt May wailed, covering her face with her hand whist hugging Peter close to her. Peter hugged her back as he wiped the tears from his own eyes.

"Thank you Officer." He said.

"I'll see myself out." Officer Burke gave them a nod as he stood up from the armchair. "We'll be in contact with any updates."

"He's gone." Aunt May cried with relief. "Peter, he's never going to hurt anyone else ever again."

Peter wiped his eyes before standing up from the couch and walking over to the window. He crossed his arms and looked at his aunt. "It seems too easy. He's going to jail but it doesn't feel like enough. A part of me wishes that he would go through the pain he put Uncle Ben through. Is that bad?"

"You're angry with him, that's perfectly understandable." Aunt May said softly. "He's off the streets now and he is never going to hurt anyone again. Let's focus that okay?"

"Are you happy they caught him?" Peter asked, sitting in the armchair were the police officer was sitting earlier.

"It won't bring Ben back but I'm glad that he won't put any other family through this." Aunt May wiped the tears from her eyes with the tissue she was holding. "We don't have to wonder who did it or think about where they are anymore. We finally have the answers we were looking for, Peter."

Peter sighed as he nodded his head. He leaned back in the chair and looked at Aunt May. "Your right, I'm just missing Uncle Ben."

Aunt May gently took his hand and smiled sadly. "We both are." Their little moment was interrupted when Peter's phone began ringing in his pocket. He reached into his pocket and pulled the phone out, looking at the caller ID. Aunt May softly chuckled. "If that's Gwen, ask her if she wants to come over."

"Hello," Peter lifted the phone to his ear. He frowned when he heard the sound of sniffling and soft crying on the other end of the phone. "Gwen?"

"T-they… they…"

"Gwen, calm down." Peter gently told her as he leaned forward in the chair. He noticed the concerned look Aunt May was giving him. "Baby, tell me what's going on?"

"T-they lied to me, Peter." He heard her say.

"Who did?"

"T-they all lied to us, everyone at Oscorp!" Gwen began to cry even more down the phone. "They t-told me it was over."

"Gwen, listen to me! I'll come over as soon as I can and we can talk, okay?" He heard Gwen whimper down the phone. He sighed and put his hand to his head. "I'll be there soon, sweetheart." He hung up the phone and put it back into his pocket.

"Is she okay?" Aunt May asked, giving Peter a worried look.

Peter shook his head as he stood up from the chair. "She sounded very upset. Aunt May, do you mind if I go over and see if she's okay?"

"Off course not, dear." Aunt May stood up and kissed Peter's cheek. "Go and take care of her. I'll go into Anna for a little while."

Peter hugged his aunt tightly before kissing her forehead. "Thanks Aunt May. I won't be home too late." Peter ran to the hallway and grabbed his jacket before rushing out of the house to get to Gwen.

...

Peter got out of the elevator in Gwen's apartment building, not knowing what to expect. He couldn't imagine what had happened to make Gwen so upset. He kept calm for Gwen but at the same time he was preparing to track down the person who made her cry. He pressed the buzzer and frantically knocked on the door. "Gwen, it's me! Open the door!" He shouted, hoping it would make her let him in faster.

When Gwen opened the door, Peter tired not to gasp when he saw her standing there. Her emerald green eyes were swollen and a raw red colour. The very little eye make-up she was wearing was now smudged under her eyes. Her cheeks were covered in red blotches from crying. Despite the fact her face was tear-stained and her bottom lip was quivering; she didn't exactly look upset, she looked furious.

"Hey. What's going on?" Peter asked as he stepped into the apartment. Instead of answering, Gwen slammed the door shut and stormed into the living room. Peter took off his jacket, listening to the sound of Gwen's feet hit the wooden floorboards. He hung up his jacket and followed her into the living room to find her sitting on the armchair with her head in her hands. Peter kneeled down on front of her and placed his hand on her shoulder. "Gwen, what happened?"

"I hate them!" Gwen growled lifted her head from her hands. Peter was taken by surprise at her reaction. He had seen Gwen cry a number of times and he had seen her angry, but never like this.

"Who do you hate? Tell me." Peter tried to put his arms around her and tried to hug her but Gwen kept her hands to face. "I'm worried, just tell me what happened."

"They lied!" Gwen rolled her hands into fists and hit them hard into Peter's chest. "They promised it was over!"

"Gwen!" Peter shouted, grabbing both of her wrists. Gwen froze, staring at Peter for a moment as tears rolled down her face. Peter took a deep breath as he let go of her wrists.

Gwen squeezed her eyes shut as she shook her head. She took deep breaths as she felt herself beginning to calm down. She felt horrible for the way for acted towards Peter; she had never acted out like that before. "I'm so sorry, Peter. I just got really worked up. I'm sorry"

"I didn't mean to startle you. I need you to tell me what's happening. I hate seeing you like this." Peter told her, holding his hand to her cheek. Gwen leaned into his hand and sighed.

"They're continuing Connors work." She said. Peter gave her a surprised look. Gwen wiped a tear from her eye with the back of her hand. "I found files today about his work and they were all dated to the past few days. Basically from what I've managed to read, they are either continuing the work he left or they are starting something new based on his work."

"But they know how dangerous Connors work is. Are they trying to create another disaster?"

"I have no idea why they are doing this but all I know is that they must be doing it in secret." Gwen sighed as she looked at Peter and crossed her arms. "I haven't told you the best part; Alistaire Smythe signed all the documents."

"What? I thought he was the one who promised you that this was all over?" Peter shook his head, not knowing what to say to Gwen.

"He did. It was him and members of the committee that runs the internships in Oscorp." Gwen put her head in her hands and sighed again. She had heard many negative things about Oscorp in her time working there, but she never imagined that they would do something like this to her. It took a lot for Gwen to trust the workers in Oscorp enough to return. "They promised me. They promised my mom."

"That's horrible, Gwen. I can't believe they're doing this." Peter sighed, wishing there was more he could do to help but he knew right now there was nothing he could say.

"I'm just so angry right now." Gwen formed a fist again with her right hand and punched it into the cushion of the armchair. "I should have never believed them. I'm so stupid!"

"Gwendy…" Peter said gently as he caressed her cheek with his thumb, making Gwen smile slightly. "They promised you and they made you believe them. You're not stupid for believing them; they shouldn't even be doing this."

"What am I going to do?" Gwen asked, watching as Peter moved to sit on the arm of the chair beside her. "I can't go back to work knowing this. How am I going to tell my mom this is happening? I can't do that to her, Peter."

Peter ran his hand up and down Gwen's back. He used his other hand to hold Gwen's. "Don't say anything, not until you're sure."

"I can't exactly ask about it, I'll be fired for looking through the confidential files. I have no idea what they are up to."

"Is there any way you can find out? Maybe you find out on the computer or something?" Peter asked.

Gwen looked up, giving Peter a serious look. "I have no idea how I'm going to find out, but I will. I'm not letting them do this. This is what killed my father."

"Just be careful, I'll help you in whatever way I can." Peter said, wrapping an arm around her.

"I'm working on Friday evening, so I'll try to figure out something then." Gwen fell backwards into the armchair and covered face with her hands. "I can't think about it now. I'm tired and I have a headache."

"Is there anything I can do?" Peter asked. He brushed some of Gwen's hair away from her face.

Gwen shook her head; she moved her hands away from her face to look up at Peter. She held out both of her arms towards him and gave him a sad smile. "You could just cuddle with me."

Peter smiled as he moved to sit down on the chair. As he did so, he put one arm around Gwen's shoulders and the other under her knees to move her onto his lap as he sat down. Gwen curled up on his lap when he was seated and rested her head on his shoulder. Peter wrapped his arms protectively around her and hugged her tightly.

"We'll work this out, Gwen." He said before kissing the top of her head. Gwen nodded as she closed her eyes. Peter rested his cheek against her hair and sighed. "I promise you, we will."


	7. Chapter 7

**A/N: Hi! I finally have an update after like…a month? I went to NY for a few days in October and since coming home my routine has been a little crazy. Also when you spent a total of fourteen hours on a plane in one week, you tend to think a lot. So I thought of a few small changes for the story which then turned into major changes! As I result, I re-wrote this whole chapter. I'm not completely happy with it but I don't want to delay any further. I also studied the video games to write this! So I hope you enjoy.**

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter Seven<strong>

Gwen groaned at the nagging headache that had been bothering her all morning, falling back into her desk chair. She wrapped her thin rode closer to her body as she shivered. Her head literally hurt with the slightest movement, making her feel dizzy and nauseous. In the past few days since she found out about the work at Oscorp, she tried her best to carry on as normal. However while she put on a brave face for her family, Gwen was struggling with the information she knows. She barely slept; it was like her body was asleep but her mind was constantly focused on this. She didn't dare tell her mom what was going on. She couldn't do that to her.

That Friday morning, Gwen got out of bed before any of her family did. Despite feeling exhausted, she awoke and struggled to go back to sleep so she decided to get up and print some essays for class. She constantly thought about going to work that day, she had no idea what she was going to do but she needed to find answers about what was going on with Connors work, even if that meant sneaking to the labs and searching for the files herself.

She tried to read through her essay but her tired eyes couldn't focus on the screen. She rested her head in her hands as the pounding pain began to increase. She heard her bedroom door open; she turned to her head to see her mother walk in, still dressed in her nightgown and robe.

"Good morning, honey. You're up early." Helen sat down on her daughter's unmade bed, titling her head to the side when she saw how red and tired looking Gwen's eyes were. "Are you okay, darling?"

"Yeah, I'm fine." Gwen said, her voice sounding more raspy than usual. She winced at the uncomfortable scratchy sensation in her throat as she spoke. "I just didn't sleep great last night."

"Why didn't you sleep well?" Helen asked, giving her daughter a concerned look. "Is there something on your mind?"

"No, I just a bad night but I'm okay." Gwen forced a smile on her face as she looked at her mother. Helen stood up from the bed when she noticed Gwen shivering. She put the back of her hand to Gwen's forehead and frowned.

"Honey, you're burning up."

"No, I'm fine." Gwen insisted, turning around in her chair and facing her mother.

"Then why are you shivering?" Helen challenged, taking her daughters hands and pulling her from the chair. "Get back into bed, you are not going to school or work today."

"Mom, I have too!" Gwen slightly whined as her mother put her arm around her and guided her to the bed. "It's important."

"Yes, school is important but your health is more important, Gwendolyne." Gwen rolled her eyes, knowing her mom was being serious when she used her full name. "I'm sure Peter would be more than happy to bring your homework over after school. You are going to stay in bed for the day and get some rest." Helen helped adjust the pillows before Gwen lay back down.

"Okay, fine." Gwen huffed as she pulled the covers to her chest. She closed her eyes and placed her hand to her warm forehead. "I'll call Peter before he goes to school."

"Good girl." Helen smiled, rubbing her hand along Gwen's arm. "I'm going to get you something to keep that fever down."

When Helen left the room, Gwen groaned angrily as she rolled her side and buried her head into the pillow. "Stupid immune system,"

...

Peter looked at his watch while he stood at the water fountain outside of the school gym. It was where he would meet with Gwen on the mornings when they didn't go to school together. Peter began to wonder where Gwen was, with class starting in only fifteen minutes and normally she was always there before him.

Peter's phone started ringing, he looked down at the black touchscreen phone in his hand to see Gwen's photo along with her name flashing on the screen. Peter sighed in relief; he was beginning to get worried and would have never been able to focus in class if he didn't hear from Gwen. He swiped his finger across the screen to answer the call.

"Hey, where are you? I'm waiting at the gym for you."

"Don't bother waiting for me." Gwen sighed down the phone. "I'm sick so mom isn't letting me go to school or work."

"Oh, are you okay?" Peter asked, noticing how Gwen's voice sounded different to how it normally would down the phone.

"I'm fine, just a bad headache and sore throat." Gwen told him. "Peter, what am I going to do? I wanted to try and figure out what Smythe is up too."

"Don't worry. If you want, I'll go to Oscorp and investigate." Peter offered, picking up his backpack and walking in the direction of his locker.

"I appreciate that, Peter." He heard Gwen slightly giggle down the phone. "Oscorp security has become much stricter these past few months. You won't get in."

"Hey, I got in before right?" Peter chuckled. "I can do it again. Let me see what I can do, okay?"

"Norman Osborn's office is somewhere on the 95th floor, maybe you can find something there. Just don't get in trouble."

"I'll work something out. I'll come over later." Peter said, arriving at his locker. He laughed before speaking again. "I get to be first in our class for the day. I am going to love this."

"Shut up. Enjoy it while you can, I'll be back on Monday." He heard Gwen say. "I love you."

"I love you too. Feel better." Peter hung up the phone and leaned his head against the locker. He knew what he would be doing during class today, figuring out how to get into Oscorp.

...

At lunch Peter was sitting in the cafeteria, tapping his pencil against the notebook he had opened on the table. He tried to figure how to find his way to find his way to Norman Osborn's office without wondering around or looking suspicious. He couldn't be seen going into the building, but luckily for him his abilities may help him get into the tower without being seen. Not coming up with any ideas on finding his way to the office, Peter groaned as he threw the pen onto the doodled page of the notebook.

"Hey, can I sit here?" Peter looked up to see Mary Jane standing there, holding a blue lunch tray in her hands. Peter nodded and gestured for her to sit down. Mary Jane sat down across from Peter and looked around. "No Gwen today?"

"She stayed him sick today." Peter said, shaking his head and looking up at the girl across from him.

"Oh, so what are you doing? You look stressed." Mary Jane leaned forward, looking at the messy notes written on the page. She tilted her head to the side so she wouldn't be looking at the page completely upside down. "Ooh, what bank are you trying to break into?" She chuckled.

"It's a very long story."

"We have an hour until class starts." Mary Jane answered as she began to take the cap off her water bottle. "Go on." She paused before taking a slip of her water and looked at Peter. "You're not really breaking into a bank, are you?"

"No." Peter laughed lightly and sighed, knowing there is no way to get out of this now. "You are going to think this is crazy."

"I swear I won't say anything. If your plan goes downhill, I know nothing about it." Mary Jane took a slip of water and pulled the water bottle away from her lips. "So what's happening?"

"I don't know how much you know about the Lizard incident…" Peter began.

"Gwen mentioned that her father was one of the people killed that night." Mary Jane cut in. "I mostly know what they have said about it on the news."

"Well, Gwen thinks they might be continuing the work at the caused the Lizard incident. We have no idea why but it could lead to…"

"…something worse." Mary Jane finished, now subconsciously playing with the cap of the water bottle. She looked down at the notebook. "So where does this come in?"

"I need to get into Oscorp to find out what is going on. Gwen thinks I could find information could be in Norman Osborn's office but I have clue how to get there. All I know is that the office is on the 95th floor." Peter explained. "She is furious since this is how she lost her father. Her mentor is working with it and he promised her it was over."

"So you'll need to go to Norman Osborn's office and find proof that this is happening." Mary Jane said as she stood up and began to walk away. "Lucky for you, I might be able to help."

"MJ, where are you…" Peter began to say, but Mary Jane was already gone. Peter sighed as he took out his phone to check for any messages from Gwen. She rarely missed school; it was quiet that day without their little talks during lunch or between classes. Within fifteen minutes Mary Jane returned with a slip of paper in her hands.

"Okay, I need you to be patient with me." Mary Jane placed the paper on the table and sat beside Peter. She used the pen in her hand to point at her handwriting on the paper. "You mentioned Osborn's office is on the 95th floor. You get out of the elevator and it should leave you on a balcony with a reception desk right on front of you. Turn right and you should see an automatic door. It leads to the labs and you may need a card to get in there so that is most likely a no-go."

"How do you…"

"So at the automatic doors, turn left along the balcony. Then you turn right, where you'll see double glass doors." Mary Jane continued explaining as she attempted to draw a map in the page. "I don't know if you need an Oscorp ID but through those doors there are a bunch of board rooms and offices. Osborn's office is somewhere on the left. His office is at the front of the building, apparently it's huge. Anything above the 92nd floor has very strict access, so that might be a problem." Mary Jane smiled as she pushed the slip of paper towards Peter. "No need to thank me."

"How do you know this?" Peter stared at Mary Jane in amazement before looking down at the paper.

"My uncle…well he's actually a family friend but I call him my uncle, he was a cleaner at Oscorp and just so happened to work on that floor a few times." Mary Jane noticed the speechless look on Peter's face. "Don't worry, I didn't mention any names. I just asked the layout and told him it was for a project."

"Wow… Thanks MJ." Peter shook his head and laughed slightly. "This is unbelievable."

"I think you are crazy." Mary Jane picked up her sandwich from the tray and looked at Peter. "Just use that information wisely."

Peter folded the paper and placed it into his jeans pocket. He knew what he would be doing after school today.

...

Peter sat on the building across from the Oscorp tower. Wearing a black jacket over the light material of his hoodie and his jeans, since wearing his Spider-Man suit was most likely a bad idea. The only part of his Spider-Man suit that he had with him were his gloves, they were folded and hidden in the pocket of his jacket. He wore a black beanie while keeping his hood over his head as an attempt to cover his identity.

"How do I get in…?" Peter mumbled to himself as he eyed the building on front of him. He left it as late as possible in the evening to go to the tower. Mary Jane's directions were a huge help, however he needed to find a way in to avoid the security cameras and the guards. From his own research, he found there was an entrance on the south side of the tower used for transferring large materials and as an emergency exit in unlikely cases.

Peter jumped from the building, shooting a web at the Oscorp building to swing himself to the other side of the tower. While soaring near the ground, his eyes spotted the opening of the air vent at the lower end of the building. His eyes focused on the medal vent before landing perfectly beside it. He held onto both sides of the vent before jumping in.

Peter crawled along the vent, trying to make as little noise as possible. The sleeves of his black hoodie brushed off the dusty surface of the vent. Peter pulled his hoodie up to cover his face from the nose down to reduce the amount of dust he inhaled. He listened closely for any noises that could tell him whereabouts in the Oscorp the vent would lead too. Peter peered through the opening in the vent to see uniformed men walking down the brightly lit hallway.

Once the men were out of sight, Peter removed the cover and slowly webbed down. He looked around his surroundings at an upside down angle, spotting a service elevator in the near distance. Peter shot a web further along the ceiling remained alert for security that could be working in this area of the building. Peter swung across the room from the web attached to the high ceiling, bringing him closer to the elevator. Shooting a web at the elevator button, Peter slowly and cautiously lowered himself while waiting for the elevator doors to slide open. Seeing the elevator open and realising it was empty, Peter quickly made his way inside.

Peter leaned back against the elevator wall, taking deep breaths. He was in the building now but he to mentally plan his next moves, he had to do it fast and quick. The elevators went upwards, Peter realised he was at serious risk of being caught if anyone got into the waiting elevator. He looked up the ceiling hatch before jumping toward the ceiling and pulling the hatch open and climbing into the elevator shaft.

Shortly after the elevator came to a halt, Peter heard footsteps below. He looked through the hatch to see two Oscorp security men stepping into the elevator cart. Peter moved quietly, listening to the voice of the two men.

"What floor?" One of the men with a Southern accent asked.

"Seventh."

Peter could hear the voices of the two men mixed with the noise of the large elevator carts being lifted to the upper floors. Peering through the half opened hatch, Peter could see the elevator only went to the 80th floor. By the sealed layout of the elevator, Peter knew this wasn't the main elevator most commonly used in the building.

The elevator came to a halt, slightly rocking the surface Peter was sitting on. The men stepped out of the elevator, continuing the conversation they had started on the way to that floor. When he was sure no one else was getting in, Peter jumped down causing the elevator shaft to rattle. He hit to button to go to the 80th floor. The numbers on the electronic screen changed at a steady pace as the cart passed by the different floors.

The doors slid open; Peter looked around before stepping into the hallway. The hallway was empty and silent, apart from what sounded like a vacuum cleaner in the distance. Slowly making his way down the hallway, he knew his next step was to find his way to the public elevator to get to the 95th floor.

When Peter was about to turn the corner, he saw a man standing at the glass door. He used one hand to lock the door while balancing folders and paper work with the opposite arm. Peter peered from the corner to see the man's ID badge slide off the top of the folder, hitting the tiled ground below. Peter shot a web at the badge, pulling it towards him before the man could even notice it was gone.

Peter leaned back against the wall while clipping the badge to his jacket, in hopes it would prevent much attention being drawn to him. He tore off his beanie, rolling it up and tucking it into the pocket of his jacket. He stood with his back to the wall until the man locking the door was out of sight. He made his way down the hallway, eventually finding his way to the public elevators.

The late evening meant the hallways of the Oscorp tower were almost completely empty. The normally hectic building now had only a small few people walking down the hallways. Peter got into the empty glass elevator, hitting the button to take him to the 95th floor. When the doors opened, Peter cautiously stepped while looking at his surroundings. The layout was slightly different than he imagined, the reception desk was across from the elevator, just like Mary Jane had said.

The reception desk was abandoned, which Peter wasn't expecting. He went in the direction Mary Jane had given him with only three people walking past him, not paying any attention to him. Looking at the glass doors from a short distance away, Peter noticed a keypad on the wall; confirming he was now in the strictest part of the building.

Peter turned the opposite direction, knowing he would need to find an alternative way in since he didn't know the code for the keypad. He moved further down the hallway until he was out of sight from anyone in the lobby. He turned the corner and looked around to make sure no one was around. He looked up to see the opening of another air vent.

Peter sighed before jumping up and quickly climbed up the wall, using his strength to the pull the cover off. He dropped it before shooting a web and lowering it to the ground to avoid it making a loud noise on impact with the ground. He climbed into the vent once again and crawled towards the direction that could lead him behind the double glass doors. He didn't know where he would end up but as long as he was on the other side of the glass doors, he knew he was one step forward. When he felt he was in right place, he crawled over the hatch before rolling onto his back and kicking the hatch open causing cover to fall to the ground.

Peter slowly webbed down from the ceiling to see himself in a large boardroom, lit up by the lights on the walls and limited light of the night sky coming through the large windows from the night sky. He froze for a moment when he heard voices outside the room. Once the noises passed, Peter cautiously webbed down until he reached the titled floor.

"I never want to see another air vent again." Peter mumbled to himself, looking around at the deserted room. There were shelves along one of the walls. A projector and screen were set up at the end of the room. Pages of files were scattered across the large wooden table.

"_Where do I go now?" _Peter thought as he made his way over to the door and slowly opening it. Peter looked around the hallway to see that it was empty. He eyes scanned the walls to check for cameras; he noticed a set of double glass doors in the distance, telling him he was in the right place. He didn't see any cameras except for the one facing in the opposite direction.

He was about to leave the boardroom when he heard voices down the hallway. When they voices slowly grew louder, Peter quickly made his way back into the room. He went over to the table. He glanced over the pages on the table then turned away when he saw they were not what he was looking for.

"Norman, it's late. We need to get you back to the hospital." Peter heard a voice outside the room say. He frantically looked around for a place to hide. He looked up air vent on the celling and groaned.

Donald opened the glass door and held it open as Norman used the touchpad on his wheelchair to go into the room. Donald closed the door behind them once the wheelchair was in the room.

"Menken, pick that up." Norman said, referring to the vent cover on the floor. He looked up at the open vent on the ceiling and sighed in frustration. "Last thing I need is this building falling apart."

"I'll have someone from maintenance fix that first thing in the morning. Norman, we really should get you back to the hospital." Donald picked up the cover and moved it against the wall.

"Nonsense, Menken. I've been in the office much later than this." Norman said, stopping his wheelchair at the table. He noticed the pages and looked at Donald. "Why are these here?"

"I don't think they belong to us…" Donald glanced over at the pages on the desk. "They must be from the meeting that was held here earlier."

"Well make sure none of our files are left lying around. If any of this gets leaked, I'll make sure those scientists never see a science lab again! Smythe can say goodbye to his funding." Norman snapped; he took a breath in before looking at the surface of the table. "This project isn't going as planned."

"We're making progress…"

Peter moved around in the cramped vent as he listened to the conversation below. He pulled out his phone and turned on the video recorder. He hit the record button and moved the phone over the opening of the vent, making sure to record the men's faces.

"Not enough progress." Norman said. "I'm going to die before there is any breakthrough. We need to start human trials. At the moment we are getting nowhere."

"We have been through this already, Norman. We are risking a lot right now. We are still dealing with the lawsuit from the last incident. Connors work and files shouldn't even be in this building so if they find out what we are up to, it will destroy the business!"

"The lizard incident happened during Connors work for a cure for my disease!" Norman snapped, looking up at Donald. "I want a cure for Harry and I don't want to die from this."

"Harry…" Peter whispered to himself, remembering his childhood friend. He shook his head slightly, realising Harry would end up in the same state of his father as the condition progressed.

"Listen, I've patient for long enough. We are not moving any further with this!" Norman growled. "I want human trials to start within the next week. Even if that means another lizard incident, I'm willing to risk it!" Norman's fingers moved to the touchpad and began to move his wheelchair out of the room. "That's an order, Menken!"

Donald let out a frustrated sigh as he gathered up the pages on the table. Once he had everything gathered in his arms he made his way out of the room. When Peter heard the door close, he jumped down from the vent. Landing perfectly on his feet, Peter looked at the saved recording on his phone. He sighed as he placed his hand to his head. "That's all the proof I need."

Peter put his phone into his pocket. He looked out the window at the night sky while pulling the hood over his head again. Now he just wanted to get out of this building and get to Gwen.

...

Peter landed on Gwen's fire escape nearly an hour later. He fixed his windswept hair while looking down at the lit up roads below. He let out a tired sigh before turning around to face Gwen's window. He was about to knock, like he always did, when he noticed the window was already open. Peter peaked in the smiled when he saw Gwen curled up on her bed, covered with her favourite knitted blanket.

"Hey, did you leave the window open for me?" Peter said gently as he climbed in.

"Actually, the room was too stuffy." Gwen gave a tired giggle, opening her eyes and smiling when she saw the boy standing at her window.

"How are you feeling?" Peter asked as he approached her bed.

"I have a fever and my throat hurts." Gwen moved onto her back and cleared her sore throat. "The doctor said it's the flu and a bit of dehydration."

"Poor baby…" Peter cooed, gently brushing her blonde bangs away from her face. Gwen moved over in the bed to give Peter room to lie down beside her. Peter got onto the bed, leaning against the headboard. Gwen rested her head on Peter's chest, pulling her blanket closer to her. Peter wrapped an around her over-heated body and ran his fingers through her hair. He could feel her shivering in his embrace. "Looks like you still have that fever, you're very warm."

"I feel awful." Gwen said. Peter could hear how rough her voice sounded with the sore throat. He held her closer to him, Gwen sighed miserably. "I hate this. My mom has been doing everything for me all day."

"Just let her for now. You need your rest." Peter told her, smiling slightly. Gwen was very independent and hated having things done for her while she was stuck in bed. This didn't happen often since she rarely got sick. "You haven't been sleeping well this past week, have you?"

"How did you know?" Gwen lifted her head at looked at her boyfriend with a confused look.

"I know you too well." Peter leaned in, gently pressing his nose against her temple. He rubbed his hand along her shoulder. "No wonder you're sick, you have been under so much stress these past few days."

"I wasn't feeling great these past few days; I just put it down to stress." Gwen admitted. "I think this was just bad luck."

"A good night's sleep should help." Peter told her.

"Did you go to Oscorp?" Gwen moved away from Peter so she could sit up in her bed. She turned around and looked at him. Peter nodded, looking away from Gwen's green glassy eyes.

"Yes, but maybe we should talk about it when you are feeling better." Gwen shook her head.

"No, I want to talk about it now." She moved around in the bed so she was now resting her back against the wall. She fixed her blanket so it was now wrapped around her shoulders. "How did you get in anyway?"

"I accidentally told Mary Jane what's going on and she got me directions around the building." Peter told her. "She promised she wouldn't say anything to anyone else."

"I'm surprised she actually took you seriously." Gwen laughed gently. "So what did you find?"

"You were right, they are continuing the experiments." Peter took out his phone, the screen illuminating the dull bedroom. He got the video on the screen before handing the phone to Gwen. Gwen's eyes looked over the touchscreen. "Norman mentioned something about a funding for Smythe."

"Off course they are." Gwen sighed and looked away from the phone, running her fingers through her hair. "He probably offered Smythe funding's for the robotics facility."

"I recorded a conversation between Norman and his assistant." Peter took the phone from Gwen's hands and hit the play button, moving closer to Gwen so she could see the screen. Norman Osborn's voice echoed through Gwen's bedroom.

"_The lizard incident happened during Connors work for a cure for my disease! I want a cure for Harry and I don't want to die from this."_

"So he's continuing the experiments to cure his son and try to extend his life?" Gwen looked up at Peter. "They are both dying."

"I know. Harry and I were friends as kids." Peter sighed, not wanting Harry to progress to the point his father was at. The small glimpse of Norman today was enough to tell Peter that the disease was horrific. "Keep listening." He gestured towards the phone. Gwen moved the phone closer to her ear as the audio continued.

"_I want human trials to start within the next week. Even if that means another lizard incident, I'm willing to risk it."_

"So all this is to find a cure." Gwen handed the phone back to Peter and sighed. She wrapped the blanket closer to her body. "Why do they have to follow Connors work when they know how dangerous it is?"

"But if he goes ahead with this, who knows how many lives will be at risk. If something worse than the lizard happens…"

"…It will risk more lives." Gwen cut in. She moved back to her previous spot on the bed and rested her head on the pillows, snuggling into Peter's side. "So what do we do now?"

"We have to stop them before human trials start." Peter put his arm around Gwen while flicking though his phone. "I can get the video onto a DVD."

"I'll bring it to the police. I know some people there who were close to my father. They can help." Gwen yawned as Peter lay down next to her and running his hand through her hair. "My doctor gave me a notice to stay home for the next week."

"Just say an anonymous source sent them to you." Peter smirked, looking at Gwen and lightly caressing her cheek with his knuckle. Gwen smiled faintly. "I get to be first in our class for a whole week?"

"No! I will be back first thing on Monday morning and then you will go back to being second in our class!" Gwen giggled as Peter gave her an offended look.

"Mean." He chuckled, brushing his nose against hers. Gwen giggled gently. She closed her heavy eyes. Peter gently put his hand over her warm forehead. "Are you feeling okay? Do you need me to get you anything?"

"No, I'm fine." Gwen answered with a grateful smile. She rested her head on Peter's chest, moving her left hand up to his shoulder. "Just hold me." She let out a content sigh when she felt Peter's arms wrap around her.

"Get some sleep." He whispered to her. "I'll come over tomorrow and spread the day with you."

"I love you." Gwen mumbled as sleep began to take over her tired body. Peter kissed her head and held her close until she was asleep in his arms. He knew his Aunt May would get worried if he didn't return home soon. Slowly and gently, he sat up in the bed with Gwen in his arms. Putting his hand behind her head for support, he lay her back down on the bed, the pillows replacing Peter's chest.

Gwen took a deep breath and moaned slightly as she moved into a comfortable position on her side without even awakening. Peter soothingly shushed her as he pulled her pink and yellow knitted blanket up to her shoulders. Gwen buried her head into the pillow as she got settled into the bed.

Peter looked at her and smiled. Her messy hair was spread out across the pillow. She had looked exhausted from days of not sleeping and stress of what was happening. Even though she looked paler than usual and her eyes were red and slightly puffy, she looked still looked so beautiful.

Peter leaned down over his sleeping girlfriend and lightly kissed her cheek. "See you tomorrow." He whispered.


	8. Chapter 8

**A/N: So here's an update to make up for the long wait with the last chapter. I have some really long chapters coming up soon. I hope you like this one and let me know what you think.**

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter Eight<strong>

Gwen looked around the offices of the police department, holding an envelope to her chest. The office was quiet that Sunday morning, with most of the desks empty. Her father's former work place was exactly how Gwen remembered it. She had been to her father's office once in her life. When she was thirteen, her father took her to work with him to see the offices and to meet his co-workers. Gwen remembered that day so clearly; she never wanted to go back to the office under these circumstances.

Gwen walked through the office and noticed a tall, olive-skinned man in a NYPD uniform standing over one of the desks, glaring at the computer screen. Gwen stared at him for a moment. A smile spread across her face when she realised it was the man she was looking for.

"Officer Cole?" The man turned around and looked at the familiar blonde girl. His dark eyes widened and he smiled, recognising the girl in seconds.

"Hello Gwen."

"It's so nice to see you, Officer Cole." Gwen smiled as her father's former friend walked over and pulled her into a hug. George Stacy had been friends with him since the early days of his career. Gwen had known Officer Cole since she was a child, her brothers refereed to him as their uncle.

"Hey, it's Uncle Henry, remember?" He chuckled, patting Gwen's shoulder. "What can I help you with?"

"Well, there is something I need to talk about. I wasn't sure who to go to." Gwen told him.

"Come into the office and we can talk privately." Henry put his hand on Gwen's shoulder and led her into the private office. Gwen looked around at the framed photos and newspaper articles that hung on the walls. "How's your mother doing?" Henry asked, sitting down behind the desk. Gwen looked at him and sat down on the chair. "I haven't seen her or the boys since the memorial service for your father."

"She's doing well." Gwen said, slightly nodding and giving him a small smile.

"So, what did you come here to talk about?" Henry asked, leaning forward and folding his arms on the desk.

"Well…" Gwen hesitated, looking down at the envelope in her hands. "This was sent to me last week." She extended her arm and gave the envelope to him. Peter had set up for her the day before. "It was completely anonymous. No name or anything, it was just left on my desk at work."

"What exactly is it?" Henry opened the envelope and pulled out the CD case. He set them down on the desk and looked closely at it.

"Oscorp are continuing with the work that killed my father. I watched the DVD and didn't know what to do so I brought it straight here." Gwen lied. She couldn't tell the truth that her web-slinging boyfriend broke into Oscorp after hours and recorded Norman Osborn's private conversation. "It's a video recording of Norman Osborn saying he is willing to do human trials within the next week with Connors work."

"Well, we could try and find out who sent these…"

"Officer Cole, I'm not worried about who sent them." Gwen quickly interrupted, shaking her head. "I work at Oscorp and I know that if this is going ahead, we are risking another lizard incident."

"Oscorp quit Connors work after the lizard and it wasn't fully their choice. If I remember correctly, they are still working with the lawsuit over the last incident." Henry said in confusion as he flipped the unmarked CD case in his hands.

"They must be doing this in secret. Officer Cole, please promise me you will investigate this." Gwen looked at him with pleading eyes. "Twenty-three people, including my father, were killed during the lizard incident. If anything bad happens, more people will die or worse. It could destroy the whole city. Our family suffered because of the last incident, I don't want anyone else to go through that."

"Your right, this is extremely dangerous considering what happened last time." Henry sighed and nodded. He looked at the girl who was like family to him. "I will send this off and have it looked at."

"Thank you so much." Gwen said, sighing in relief since she had complete trust that Officer Cole wouldn't ignore this. She brushed a lock of hair behind her ear while looking at the older man on front of her. "I haven't told my mom, she doesn't know about any of this."

"Don't worry, Gwen. This is all confidential." Henry reassured her. "I promise this will be investigated."

"Thank you." Gwen said, giving a grateful smile as she stood up from the chair. "I better go. I have to meet up with someone."

"I'll keep you updated." Henry said, watching Gwen leave the room. He leaned back in his chair, thinking of the tragic aftermath of the last Oscorp related incident. He wasn't going to let that happen again.

...

Peter leaned back on the couch with his black laptop placed on his lap. He worked between browsing colleges to editing photos to sell to the Daily Bugle. He had spent his Saturday night patrolling the streets as Spider-Man. He was drained, after stopping a car chase and not getting home until the early hours of the morning. He had burned the video onto a disk for Gwen to bring to the police. Despite the fact he offered to go with her, Gwen insisted that this was something she needed to do on her own.

Peter put his laptop onto the coffee table and fell back into the cushions. He stretched his arms, getting comfortable on the couch. Aunt May was working at the hospital and Peter had the whole house to himself for the day. He decided to have a relaxing Sunday, since it had been as while since he had a resting day.

Peter heard someone knock on the window of his front door; he climbed up from the couch and looked out the living-room window. He saw Gwen standing there, her arms folded over her long cream coloured coat. Peter went out to the hallway and opened the door, greeting his girl with a smile.

"I got it done." Gwen sighed as she stepped in. She opened her coat and pulled her arms out of the sleeves.

"How did it go?" Peter asked, taking Gwen's coat and hanging it up on the coat hanger. He watched as Gwen took off her blue scarf and hung it up with her coat.

"I got to see my father's old friend." Gwen fixed her grey sweater, pulling it down over her black leggings. She followed Peter into the living-room, sitting down next to him on the couch. "He said he would have it investigated."

"There is nothing more we can do." Peter took her hand and squeezed it gently. "We just have to let the police handle it now."

"Did we do the right thing?" Gwen asked, looking into Peter's big brown eyes. "Harry's father is going to die."

"Off course we did. They were willing to put the city at risk." Peter moved closer to Gwen and wrapped his arm around her shoulders; knowing Gwen was thinking from her own experience of losing her father.

"Are you worried about Harry?" Gwen rested her head on Peter's shoulder. "You mentioned you were friends with him."

"We haven't seen each other since we were eleven." Peter smiled gently, playing with a strand of Gwen's hair. "I don't want him to suffer like his father. He's young so there is plenty of time for him to be cured. Norman however is willing to risk everyone's lives to get a cure."

"Yeah, you're right." Gwen nodded, rubbing her eye with the back of her hand. "I've overthinking this way too much these past few days."

"By the way, how are you feeling? Any fever?" Peter placed his hand over Gwen's forehead while using his other hand to jokingly pull his sweater over his nose and mouth. "It's safe to be around you, right?" Gwen playfully pushed Peter's hand away from her head, giggling softly.

"I'm fine; I just needed to rest for the weekend." Gwen told him. "I'm better now, just a little tired."

"You can lie down in my room for a while, if you want." Peter suggested. Gwen smiled gratefully and shook her head. "How about you take off your boots and get comfortable. We can cuddle here and watch TV?"

"I like that idea." A smile formed on Gwen's face before she pulled off her ankle boots and placed them neatly at the side of the couch. She curled up into Peter's side while he turned on the TV with the remote.

They stayed that way for about an hour. Gwen closed her eyes while listening to the sounds coming from the TV, occasionally opening her eyes to look at the screen. Peter kept his right arm around her waist and used his left hand to hold hers. He leaned his head back on the couch, feeling his eyes get heavy.

Peter closed his eyes feeling more relaxed, listening to the sound of Gwen's steady breathing and the noises from the TV. He moved his hand to Gwen's head and began to stroke her hair lightly until he drifted off completely. He wasn't asleep for long; both teenagers were suddenly awoken by the noise of someone knocking on the door.

They looked at each other before hearing someone knock again. Instead of disturbing their comfortable position on the couch to answer the door, Both Peter and Gwen moved slightly and glanced out the window to see a familiar red haired girl standing there.

"It's open!" Peter shouted, Gwen giggled and playfully hit Peter's chest.

"I'll get it." She yawned as she stood up and made her way out to the hallway. Peter heard the door open and sat up on the couch. He could hear the two girls greet each other before they walked into the living-room together.

"Hey Peter." Mary Jane said, looking over at him while sitting down on the armchair. "Did I wake you both?"

"Nah, we were just drifting in and out of sleep." Peter said as Gwen sat down next to him once again. He stretched out his arm, putting it around her shoulders. Gwen yawned while brushing her messy bangs away from her eyes.

"Was my sense of direction any help to you last Friday?" Mary Jane asked. Gwen cuddled into Peter's side, looking up at him and giving him a slight nod to let him know it was okay to talk about it.

"Yeah, it was extremely helpful. I got in." Peter looked over to Mary Jane while moving his arm around Gwen's waist.

"You got in? How did you get past security?" Mary Jane nearly shouted while slightly laughing as she leaned forward in the chair.

"It's amazing what you can do with a fake badge." Peter lied. Remembering the first time he had got into Oscorp with the Intern badge. He knew by the way Gwen was smirking that she was also thinking about it.

"Okay, so what happened?" Mary Jane asked. "Did you find what you were looking for?"

"Well, they are continuing with Connors work." Gwen sighed, moving away from Peter and sitting up on the couch. She pulled her knees up and hugged them to her chest.

"Why?" Mary Jane gave them both a surprised look. "After everything that happened before…"

"They were supposed to destroy all of Connors work, but I guess the kept a few of the documents and that is what they are working from." Gwen explained, resting her chin on her knees. "Either way, they were continuing his work in secret."

"They didn't do a good job at keeping it secret if Peter managed to find out." Mary Jane joked fixing the sleeves of her denim jacket before crossing her arms on front of her stomach. "So what happens now?"

"I sent the video of them talking about it to the police. Luckily the officer there knew my father." Gwen told her. She looked up at Peter and laughed slightly. "Let's just say an anonymous source sent it." Peter chucked, pressing his nose against her temple. "How did you know your way around Oscorp anyway?" Gwen asked, looking over at Mary Jane.

"I know someone who used to be a cleaner at Oscorp." Mary Jane explained. "He worked at night. He would work on the 95th floor most of the time. Then they fired him over staff cuts or something."

"So he just told you where to go?" Gwen looked between Peter and Mary Jane.

"I didn't exactly tell him what we were up too." Mary Jane admitted, laughing innocently. "As I said, they fired him. So he isn't going to care what happens with Oscorp."

The group of teens turned their attention to the hallway when they heard the front door open. They saw Aunt May walk in, her curly hair tied back into a messy bun. Her black bag hung from her shoulder as she carried a bag of groceries. She smiled at the teens as she walked into the living room.

"Hey guys." She walked over to Gwen and placed her free hand on the younger girls shoulder. "Gwen, honey, how are you feeling? Peter said you were not well over the weekend."

"Yeah but I'm doing much better." Gwen said, politely smiling at Peter's aunt. "I just needed some rest."

"That's good, I'm glad to see you doing better." Aunt May said before turning to Mary Jane. "Anna says you are still working on that bike of yours."

"It's not ready for the streets quite just yet." Mary Jane told her.

"Aunt Anna is probably praying it'll never be ready for the streets." Peter joked, gesturing towards Aunt May. "If she is anything like Aunt May, then she will never want you on the streets with it."

"It's not a racing bike." Mary Jane argued, while laughing.

"I'm going to get lunch ready. Girls, would you like some?" Aunt May smiled at the teens before walking through the dining room and towards the kitchen.

"Yes, please." Mary Jane said from the chair.

"I'll help you, Aunt May." Gwen stood up from the couch and followed Aunt May into the kitchen. Peter couldn't help but smile at her as she entered the kitchen, fixing her sweater as she walked.

"So what do you think the police will do?" Mary Jane whispered, standing from the chair and walking over to the couch. Instead of sitting on the cushions, she sat down on the arm of the couch.

"Investigate it, I hope. I just want them to do something." Peter shrugged, looking at his next-door neighbour.

"So what is Gwen going to do now?" Mary Jane asked in a low voice to ensure only Peter will hear her. "I mean, is she going to return to work there after everything their doing?"

"She hasn't spoken about it. I think she is just waiting for her mom to find out." Peter sighed, looking through the dining room and into the kitchen. He could see Gwen talking to Aunt May as she took the plates out of the cabinet. He watched her place them on the kitchen counter while smiling at Aunt May.

"She's been through a lot, huh?"

"Yeah, she doesn't deserve any of this." Peter nodded, knowing Gwen was working at Oscorp to help support her family and help her mom.

Peter smiled at Gwen when she looked over at him from the kitchen. She smiled back before continuing her conversation with Aunt May. Peter knew whatever happened next was not going to be easy for Gwen or her family. He knew one thing; he was going to be by her side through it all.

...

The three middle-aged scientists stood around Norman Osborn's desk, each one of them holding a folder regarding their recent work. Donald Menken stood behind Norman with his arms crossed. Norman is was sitting at his desk, visibly getting worse from his progressing condition. His skin now a sickly green colour, dark blue veins were visible on his hands and arms.

"Mr Osborn is insisting that human trials start this week." Donald explained to the men on front of him. "He is willing to be the subject himself."

"Mr Osborn, none was our trials have worked so far." Doctor Whelan tried to explain. "We are nowhere near ready for human trials. We need more time."

"I have given you enough time." Norman snapped. He slammed his hand onto the table. "See this?" He pointed towards the green sore on his wrist. "These are starting to form on my arms. If you didn't waste time with the work, I would have never processed to this point."

"Sir, if we do human trials without having one successful result with the mice, we are talking about disastrous consequences." Doctor Morris told Norman. "This could lead to something worse than the lizard. From all the tests we have done, this will prove fatal for you."

"We haven't been wasting time with this; we have been doing everything possible to work with Connors previous work." Doctor Storm added. "We had limited information regarding Connors work."

"I can handle whatever serum you have come up with…" Norman barely listened to the warning from the workers on front of him. He had been patient enough with them, he was tired of waiting. Norman had a strong feeling that the work was delayed because of the scientists didn't want to be blame for anymore possible catastrophes that may arise. "You are telling me that the serum can prove fatal. I will die without it. I can handle whatever happens. We'll do it tomorrow."

The three scientists gave each other unsure looks. Doctor Morris looked over at Donald who gave them a look that said 'what can we do because what Norman says goes.' Doctor Morris took the files from Doctor Whelan. He gave them, along with the files he had been holding, to Doctor Storm.

"Store these in the lab." Morris told him, watching while Doctor Storm left. He turned to Norman, placing his hands on the desk. He looked at Norman, giving his direct eye contact. "If we are going to go through with this, I feel I should inform you of the known risks."

"Are we talking about the risks to Mr Osborn or the risks to the city?" Doctor Whelan muttered to himself.

"Doctor Whelan, leave right now!" Donald snapped, glaring over at the man standing there. Doctor Whelan gave an angry look at Donald before storming out at the office.

"I'm just going to say it as it is." Doctor Morris began. "We have no idea what the serum will do regarding your condition. We have been working to make sure this serum won't make you change like what happened with Connors. However we don't have any guarantees."

"So what are we risking?" Norman asked, leaning back in this chair.

"We have two worst case scenarios. First one, the serum will have a worse effect on you than it had on the test mice." Morris explained. "Off course fatality is a risk, but there is also a risk of it making the condition worse and giving you less time. It's all up to you…"

"If it means getting somewhere with a cure…" Norman crossed his arms looked between Doctor Morris.

Before anything else could be said, Norman heard the voice of one of his female assistants outside his office. He looked to the door to see two police officers walk in. Felicia Hardy walked on front of them, trying to stop them from entering.

"No, they are in a meeting! You can't go in there!"

"Miss Hardy, it's okay." Donald called over to them. He gave a gesture for her to leave. When Felicia left, Donald walked over to the two police officers. "What can we do for you, Officers?"

"I'm Officer Lee." The young female officer said, she pointed towards the taller man standing next to her. "This is Officer Benson. We are here to speak to Mr Osborn and Mr Donald Menken."

"Well, I will leave you alone then." Doctor Morris said, putting his hand into his lab coat and walking out of the office.

"We are very busy today, so what can we do for you." Norman moved his wheelchair away from the desk. He wheeled the chair over to where Donald was standing. He stopped the chair facing the officers.

"We have a few questions to ask you about work that this taking place in this building at the moment." Officer Lee told the two men.

"Well we have a lot of work that goes on here at Oscorp. What department are you referring too?" Donald asked.

"Actually, we got an anonymous tip that there is dangerous work going on here." Officer Benson looked between the Donald and Norman. He glanced down at his notebook before looking at his notebook.

Donald tried not to react in any obvious way. He looked down at Norman who had a look of shock and anger on his face. It was clear someone from the project had spoken to the police. Donald knew this was not going to end well.


	9. Chapter 9

**A/N: Hello. Here's my next chapter. I hope you all like it. My next chapter will be my longest one so far, so I'm looking forward to getting it up. Anyways let me know what you think and I hope you enjoy.**

* * *

><p><span><strong>Four months earlier<strong>

_Gwen sat anxiously in one of the offices of the police department, her foot tapped of the carpet covered ground. Her mother sat by her side, holding her right hand firmly. Gwen kept her head down while the police officers explained the circumstances surrounding the investigation into her father's death. She didn't make eye contact with any of the people in the room, which was very unusual for Gwen. In the two days since her father's death, Gwen was felt confused, numb and unable to think clearly. Even though she had managed to sleep, it felt like her mind was constantly in overdrive._

_Gwen was tired from all the crying she had done. She never tried to cover it, she cried with her mom and brothers. She couldn't figure out where Peter had been or why he has been avoiding her. She hoped that Peter was just giving her space, but after two days and not a single phone call, she began to doubt that idea. She just wanted to talk to him but didn't want to call him. She decided to wait; maybe Peter would attend the funeral._

"_We promise there will be a full investigation into this horrible incident." Gwen heard one of the officers say. Gwen felt a hand firmly squeeze her shoulder. She looked up to see Officer Cole standing next to her. He looked at Gwen with a sympathetic smile. Gwen tried to smile back; she turned away and bit her lip slightly to avoid bursting into tears._

"_We actually have two people here who would like to speak to Gwen." Officer Cole told them. "It's completely understandable if you don't want to talk to them."_

"_I'll be right here, sweetheart." Gwen held her mother's warm hand squeeze hers. "It's okay if you don't want to." Despite the fact her mother looked exhausted from the nightmare they had been living these past few days, she managed to give Gwen an encouraging smile. Gwen looked at Officer Cole and gave him a nod._

_Officer Cole opened the door to the office, the shades covering the window on the door shuttered as the door opened. Gwen looked up to see two men she knew from Oscorp walk in, Alistaire Smythe and Jonathan Leary. Gwen didn't know Doctor Smythe that well, but she did know Jonathan Leary. He was in charge of the internships at Oscorp. Gwen met him when she started working there; he signed her contract for her work-study programme. After starting there she moved on to be head intern to Doctor Connors._

"_I'm very sorry for your loss." Jonathan said to Gwen as he shook her hand. He went on to do the same with Helen. Jonathan leaned against the desk as he looked directly at Gwen. "We understand that this may not be the best time."_

"_No, no, it's fine." Gwen shook her head and tried to politely smile at the man on front of her. _

"_We wanted to discuss your work placement at Oscorp." Jonathan told her. "In your contract, you are meant to work with us until the end of June." Gwen looked away from the man on front of her. After losing her father, she could never imagine setting foot in that building again. She looked up at Jonathan when he continued speaking. "I understand this is a very complicated situation. Doctor Connors is no longer with us at Oscorp, as you know. We completely understand if you don't want to continue working in the labs. So if you are interested Doctor Smythe has a place for you in the Robotics Facility."_

"_It won't be the same as the science labs but with your impressive resume, we don't think you'll have any problems." Alistaire cut in. "Your pay and working times will be the exact same. Only difference is you'll be in a new facility and I'll be your new mentor. It's completely up to you."_

_Gwen gave them an unsure look before turning to look at her mother. Helen smiled at her daughter; Gwen knew her mother would support her no matter what decision she made. Helen knew Gwen loved working and keeping busy, she wasn't keen on Gwen going back to work there. She didn't want to stand in the way of her daughter's decision. Gwen didn't know how she could possibly work there again, especially if Connors experiments were continuing. Her former mentor had turned into a Lizard and murdered her father._

"_Gwen, no one is expecting an answer today. You can go home and think about it before making a decision." Officer Cole stepped forward, gently putting his hand on Gwen's shoulder, noticing how hesitant she was. Gwen nodded her head slightly before she looked up at Jonathan._

"_What about Connors experiments?"_

"_They are over. Any cross-species in Oscorp are being removed. All files relating to the work that caused all this will be destroyed." Jonathan said clearly, trying to reassure the grieving girl._

_Gwen looked over at her mother again. She knew it would be hard to return to Oscorp, but with her father no longer there she knew there would be financial difficulties ahead of them. Even though it was only a work-study programme, Gwen made good money at Oscorp. She needed to support her family, she couldn't risk not finding another job and letting her family suffer financially._

"_Yeah, I'll continue until the end of my contract." Everyone in the room couldn't help but notice how unsure Gwen sounded. _

"_Are you sure? You don't have to if you don't want to." Jonathan asked, as he leaned forward slightly to look Gwen in the eyes. Gwen nodded. Jonathan looked over at Alistaire before turning back to the two Stacy's. "Okay. Well, in the next week or two, we'll meet again to discuss you getting started again."_

"_Mrs Stacy, I promise your daughter will be safe working with us. I promise you both Connors work is over." Alistaire moved to the front to the wooden desk and looked directly at Gwen and Helen. He looked over at Gwen, pushing his glasses up his nose and making direct eye contact with her. "It's never going to happen again."_

_Gwen nodded, feeling her mother wrap her arm around her shoulders. "Okay…"_

****Chapter Nine****

**Present Day**

Gwen never thought she would be sitting in here like this. She sat on the couch in the middle of their living-room, beside her mother while holding her hand. Officer Cole sat access from them in one of the armchairs. Gwen gently stroked her mother's hand with her thumb as a way to comfort her. Helen cried into the tissue she was holding in her free hand.

"I'm sorry I had to visit you with news." Officer Cole sighed as he looked at the girls across from them.

"How could they? How could they lie to us like that?" Helen sobbed, pointing towards Gwen. "How could that lie to my daughter?"

"Mom…" Gwen said, not even knowing what she could say.

"They lied to twenty-three families." Helen continued. "They looked my daughter in the eye and promised her this work was over."

"We don't know why they are doing this." Officer Cole told them. "We are currently questioning the interns involved."

"What about the work?" Gwen asked.

"Most experiments at Oscorp are frozen while the investigation is underway. Any experiments that are taking place at the moment are under very strict supervision." The officer explained to them.

"What if something happened to Gwen with them continuing this dangerous work?" Helen shook her head in complete disbelief.

"Mom, I'm fine. Nothing is going to happen to me." Gwen tried to reassure her, putting her hand on her mom's shoulder.

"Gwen, I know you are working there for a few more months…" Officer Cole said to her.

"I can't go back there." Gwen looked at him through her watery eyes. "I can't, not after all this. They promised me it was over. I can't trust Doctor Smythe."

"Well, Jonathan Leary was completely unaware of this." Officer Cole looked at her with a sympatric smile. "As you know, he doesn't work with the labs. You might want to get in contact with him and let him know."

"I will." Gwen nodded.

"Don't worry about it, sweetheart." Helen told her though her tears. "You'll find another job."

"I know but how am I meant to help you and the boys?" Gwen let a tear fall from her eye. "I mean, we are only going to struggle more financially."

"Oh sweetheart, is that why you went back to work in Oscorp?" Helen smiled through her tears. She wiped the tear away from Gwen's cheek as she nodded. "Darling, we have been through a lot over the years and we always made it out okay. I don't want you to worry, we'll get through this. Come here."

Gwen felt her mother pull her into a tight hug. She buried her head into her mother shoulder. Helen kissed the top of Gwen's head while stroking her hair. Their moment was interrupted when they heard the apartment door open. They heard the voices of the three boys coming from the apartment hallway. Gwen pulled away from her mom and quickly leaned in to speak to both her mother and Officer Cole.

"Don't mention any of this to the boys." Gwen whispered, just loud enough to be heard by the other two adults in the living-room. "They won't understand and it will just worry them."

As if on cue, the boys wondered into the living-room. Helen looked away from them and quickly wiped the tears from her eyes.

"Uncle Henry." Simon's little face lit up when he saw the Officer sitting in the armchair.

"Hey buddy!" The taller man said, standing up from the chair and lifting Simon in his arms. He chucked as he looked at the youngest Stacy. "Little guy, you need to stop growing! You are growing up way to fast."

"Are you okay, mom?" Howard asked, noticing his mother's watery eyes as he sat down next to her on the couch.

"I'm fine, darling." Helen nodded and forced a smile as she patted her sons shoulder.

Gwen felt someone poke her shoulder. She looked behind her to see Philip standing behind the couch. He leaned in to whisper into Gwen's ear. "Why is Uncle Henry here? Why were you guys crying?"

"We were just talking about dad. There's nothing to worry about." Gwen smiled at her brother; she turned around so she could easily put her arm around her brother's shoulder.

"Well Mrs Stacy, I better get going. I'll be back to visit soon." Henry told her as he moved towards the door. "Looks like your pretty busy here."

"I'll walk you out, Uncle Henry." Gwen said, standing from the couch and walking over to the officer.

As they walked out of the apartment, Henry looked behind him to make sure the family were out of earshot before during to Gwen.

"I know you didn't want me to say anything on front of your of your mom but I think it's best if we investigate who sent you those files." Gwen shook her head and smiled. She couldn't tell him that it was Peter.

"I'm not worried about that. I think it could have been someone in Oscorp who knew the situation with my father. Maybe they thought I was guaranteed to send it to the police."

"If you notice anything suspicious, call me straight away." Henry opened the door and walked into the hallway of the apartment building.

"Don't worry, I will." Gwen smiled as she closed the apartment door. Once it was closed, the smile faded from her face. She sighed as she turned around and slid down the door until she was sitting on the ground. "Why is this happening?"

Later that night Gwen was curled up in her bed, pressing her cheek into the soft fur of her teddy bear. She needed some time alone after the long day she had. She closed her eyes, listening to the relaxing sound of the classical piano music coming from her iPod speaker on her bedside table. She felt herself drift further into a peaceful slumber. Gwen didn't know how to play piano, but she loved it. She often used the music to help her relax. Gwen snapped out of her slumber when she heard a familiar sound of footsteps on her fire escape.

She rolled over to face her window; she smiled when she saw her boyfriend standing there. Gwen fixed her hair that was tied into a bun as she walked to the window. She pulled open the window and looked up at Peter.

"Hey." Peter said, reaching through the window and taking her hand. "Come out here."

Gwen held Peter's hands as she stood onto the little shelve at the window. She ducked down as she climbed out the window to the fire escape. She shivered when the cold night air hit her. She rubbed both of her upper arms to try and keep warm.

"What are we doing out here?" She asked, looking up into Peter's eyes.

"Nothing really, I just love the view out here." Peter wrapped his arms around her and pulled her close. He caressed her back while she snuggled into his jacket. "How did it go today?"

"My mom didn't take it well." Gwen sighed, looking down at the chestnut coloured Ugg-Boots on her feet.

"Off course, she didn't." Peter responded, resting his cheek on the top of Gwen's head. "How are your brothers doing?"

"They are completely clueless to what's going on." Gwen told him, gazing at the night sky that was a nice shade of dark blue. Her eyes focused on the small amount of visible stars in the sky. "Philip is suspicious but we're not going to tell him. He doesn't need this to worry about."

"This will be all over soon." Peter reassured her, gently moving her bangs away from her eyes. "You have to go to Oscorp to get Smythe to sign resignation papers, right?"

"Yeah, I have to go this Saturday." Peter felt her nod against his jacket.

"Well after that, you never have to deal with them again." Peter kissed the top of her head and gently smiled at her. Gwen looked up at him, moving away slightly and smiling when he softly placed his hand under her chin. "How about we get out of here for a while?"

"Where will we go?" Gwen asked.

"Anywhere you want." Peter told her. "Remember we went to the top of that building near Times Square and you loved the view. We could go there."

"I don't know…" Gwen looked down at her long dark blue sweater that hung below her waist. She was wearing black leggings that were tucked into her Ugg-Boots. She hesitantly looked at her bedroom window and then back to Peter.

"Come on. We won't be gone for long." Peter held out an arm towards her. Gwen thought for a moment before eventually looking into this brown eyes and smiling. She moved closer to him, allowing him to firmly wrap his arm around her waist. Gwen tightly wrapped her arms around his neck as they moved closer to the edge of the fire escape. "Are you ready?"

"No." Gwen answered, her voice muffled into Peter's jacket. She didn't feel scared at all. She knew with Peter's arm around her, she was safe. She gripped Peter's neck tighter when she felt the fire escape under her feet disappear.

Four days later

"Someone leaked the information about our work!" Norman angrily roared over the desk of the board room. "I want to know who it was! If it as one of those scientists, I want them fired immediately!"

"The police won't tell us who! It's all confidential." Alistaire slightly yelled as an attempt to get Norman to listen to him. The previous fifteen minutes were spent listening to Norman's constant rambling on how he will destroy the career of whoever leaked the information.

"I want to know how this information was found in the first place." Norman yelled, looking from Donald to Alistaire, clearing not paying attention to what the other men were trying to tell them. "Either one of our scientists leaked it or you two didn't do a good enough job at protecting the work."

"You know what, Norman? You have taken all of this too far!" Donald shouted, slamming his hands against the wooden table. He gave Norman a harsh stare. "You wanted to go ahead with this! Now you are paying the price!" He turned to Alistaire and gave him an equally harsh look. "As for you, you have to deal with the intern in your facility since you promised her this wouldn't happen again!"

"I will handle anything with Miss Stacy." Alistaire reassured him. "The police have most likely already told her family about this."

"You better!" Donald warned. "We are under yet more lawsuits now with the families of the victims from Connor's incident. Oscorp will go under now with this."

"At least I won't be alive to see it." Norman spat bitterly. "Since no one in this building can do one job right."

"Listen to me, Norman!" Donald snapped. "If you want to know the truth, we delayed the work because it was too dangerous. You knew this was a huge risk and you still went ahead with it." Norman gave Donald a furious stare, that along with the visible effects of his condition, he looked absolutely terrifying. "The only reason we went through with it was because you would have threatened our careers if we didn't. You are going insane, Norman. The disease is now affecting you mentally. If you were in your right mind you would know risky this was to begin with."

"You're fired, Menken!" Norman glared at his assistant bitterly.

Alistaire looked between the two men with a shocked expression. Donald just nodded his head and turned to leave the office. Before he was about to walk out of the large room, lit by the windows, he gave Norman one last hard stare.

"It's over. The work, experiments, files, everything has been destroyed. This cure you wanted so badly is never going to happen." Alistaire watched as Donald left the room. He looked over at Norman, not knowing what to say or do next. Saying the wrong thing will land his job in trouble. Norman turned his wheelchair away from Alistaire, wheeling it towards the exit of the office. Using the touchpad on his wheelchair, he guided his chair to his office.

He entered his large empty office and moved his chair over to his desk. He gritted his teeth thinking about who got their hands on the information. He mentally went through names of anyone who could have given the project to the police; he couldn't figure any of this out. Mainly because the fact he was overthinking and it made it impossible to think clearly. This research was stopped before; he was going to find whoever stopped it again.

"Mr Osborn?" He heard a voice say. He looked up to see Doctor Storm walk into the office. In the time Norman knew Doctor Storm this was his first time seeing his not wearing his lab coat.

"Storm, go home." Norman snapped. "You are not needed here now."

"Sir, I don't know how much you know about the investigation…"

"I don't know anything." Norman replied, looking up at the young man. "I'm not meant to speak to anyone while there is an investigation going on." He adjusted his weak hands on the armrests of his wheelchair. "What are you doing here anyway?"

"There is a serum in Special Project. We formed it a while ago at the beginning of the work." Doctor Storm explained. "It never got to animal trials yet."

"A serum…?" Norman repeated.

"It will most likely be removed soon." Doctor Storm explained before reaching into his jacket pocket. "It was something we came up with during our work…I just thought I should let you know."

Norman leaned back in his chair. He glared at the scientist for a moment before turning the wheelchair away, signalling for him to leave. When he heard Doctor Storm leave, Norman gritted his teeth, looking at the streets below. "This isn't over."


	10. Chapter 10

**A/N: Hi, so this is the longest chapter I have written so far. I'm pretty happy with it. This is one of the most dramatic chapters that I have written so far, so I really hope you like how it turned out. I re-wrote this a few times and I did cross a few paths with TASM 2 when writing this. So, I hope you enjoy and let me know what you think.**

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter Ten<strong>

Any scientists involved in Norman's work were investigated. Most of the work they were involved in was under heavy supervision. Special Projects was the only place in Oscorp that wasn't investigated. Mainly since Norman's work wasn't linked to anything in Special Projects, the police didn't consider looking at it yet.

Norman looked around at the body amour prototypes on display behind the glass chamber. His eyes fixed on one of them; the suit he remembered had a healing protocol. Norman hit the top of a small, cube shaped device on the table which caused a blue coloured hologram keyboard to spread across the white desk. His long brittle nails tapped of the table as he hit the hologram keys. After searching the Special Projects, he pulled open the stored files on the serums.

He didn't read anything written within the files. He scrolled through them; each one he came across had the same writing. _'Human trials: failed.'_ Angrily slamming his fists against the table, Norman unsteadily made his way over to one of the chambers. Swaying slightly as he tried not to fall. He fell against the glass of the chamber, reaching over with his shaking hand, he typed in the code to get him access to the chamber. He entered as quickly as his weak legs would carry him.

He picked up one of vials in the chamber and prepared the injection. Norman paid no attention to the warning on the bottle stating that the contents were extremely dangerous and was pending animal trials. In the angry and determined state of mind he was in, he never thought that what he was about to inject could be fatal or have disastrous consequences. They may have stopped looking for a cure but he was not giving up. He wanted revenge on those who gave up on him. He was going to use this no matter what the consequences were.

Lifting the needle to his arm, he inhaled deeply before sticking the needle just below his elbow. He gritted his teeth at the strong pinch. He removed the needle and threw it to one side. At first he felt no different; suddenly a burning sensation tore through his veins. He screamed at the intense pain in his whole body. Falling to the ground, he weakly crawled out of the chamber. He screamed out in agony, feeling as if his limbs were forcefully being twisted in different directions. The pain was so strong, he didn't realise he had crawled out of the chamber. He sat up on his knees, ripping his white shirt off his body as the sensitivity of his skin increased.

Norman rose to his feet, unable to stand up straight with the sharp pain shooting up and down his spine. Through his blurry vision, he made his way to the chamber, the chamber with the body amour prototype.

...

Alistaire Smythe made his way through the lobby on the 95th floor of the Oscorp tower. He held his briefcase in one hand while using his other hand to adjust his tie. He walked through the crowded lobby and towards the elevators. He stopped when he heard a female voice behind him. "Doctor Smythe…" He turned around, seeing Felicia Hardy hurrying towards him, her high heels clicking off the tiled floor.

"Not now, Miss Hardy. I have a meeting to get to." Alistaire told her, he continued walking towards the elevators with shorter girl following him.

"Gwen Stacy is waiting in your office." Felicia said. Alistaire stopped turned around to face the girl. "She mentioned it something about needing your signature." Alistaire nodded, remembering Gwen would be coming to the office he could sign her resignation papers. He turned back in the opposite direction, looking back to the young woman as he walked.

"Thank you, Miss Hardy." He quickly headed towards his office; pushing past the Oscorp employees who crowded the hallways. When he reached his office, he opened the door to his office to see Gwen standing on front of his desk. She was dressed in a white blouse with black polka-dots that was tucked into her black pleated skirt. Her skirt fell down to her mid-thigh, over her lace tights along with her black knee-high boots. Gwen briefly looked at Alistaire when he walked in.

"Good afternoon, Miss Stacy." He said while walking over to his desk and sitting down on his office chair. He looked up at Gwen, who didn't even look back. He gestured towards the chair on front of the desk "You can sit down."

Without answering, Gwen simply placed the opened envelope she had been holding in her hands on Alistaire's desk. She crossed her arms while looking away, refusing to make any eye contact with her former mentor. Alistaire took the papers out of the envelope, his eyes scanned over them until eventually he found the space for his signature. He took his pen out of his shirt pocket and signed his name. Slipping the pages back in envelope, he held them towards Gwen. "I'm sorry this happened, Miss Stacy."

"You are just sorry you got caught!" Gwen stated, taking the envelope from him. "You looked me in the eye…you looked my mother in the eye and convinced us that this was over. Yet you were willing to put us through that nightmare all over again."

"We never intended on having another incident like the lizard, Miss Stacy." Alistaire told her, even though he knew that she was not interested in anything he had to say.

"I don't care what you are doing or not doing. I have nothing to do with this company anymore." Gwen walked towards the door. She turned around to face Alistaire again, with her hand on the handle of the door. "Twenty-three people died the night of the lizard incident. Did you even think of that when you decided to continue with Connor's work?"

As Gwen opened the door to leave, an unfamiliar alarm blared through the Oscorp building. Gwen looked around the office before turning back to Alistaire. In her time working at Oscorp, she had never heard that alarm before.

"What is that?" Gwen shouted over the loud alarm.

"I don't know, stay there!" Alistaire told her as he picked up the phone on his desk. He dialled in a number and held the phone to his ear. Gwen looked through the windows of Alistaire's office, where she could see into the atrium. The workers in Oscorp looked around in panic and confusion, many of them rushing towards the elevators and escalators. Gwen looked back over at Alistaire who had but the phone back down on the desk.

"What is going on?" Gwen demanded, trying desperately to hide her panic. Ignoring her questions, Alistaire guided her out of his office.

He approached one of the security guards who were guiding workers through the hallways. Gwen followed close behind him. "Sir, could you show Miss Stacy where to go?" Alistaire shouted over the alarms

"Yes, off course." The middle-aged officer nodded, looking at the shorter blonde girl behind him. "Come this way." He gently took Gwen's arm before leading her down the hallway.

"What is going on?" Gwen shouted, pulling her arm away from the guard. "Where are you taking me?"

"There is a disturbance somewhere in the building." The guard tried to explain over the chaotic noise. "We are now on lock-down, they will be evacuating this floor in a few minutes."

"So until then, where are we going?" Gwen asked, franticly looking around her.

"We are gathering everyone here until the main security is ready to evacuate us." The guard told her. "We will be out of here soon." Gwen felt very little comfort from what the guard said to her. She nervously looked around her; knowing whatever was going on, wasn't good at all.

After a chaotic half hour, Gwen eventually got to the 68th floor; waiting among the crowd of people to be evacuated. She grew frustrated at how slow the evacuation procedure seemed to be going. They were evacuating one floor at a time, taking everyone down in the elevators. Gwen knew how it worked, but right now she and the other Oscorp workers were completely in the dark. They were just told to be patient, which proved impossible in these circumstances.

...

The large group of people were at a complete stand still in the hallway while waiting to be brought to the elevators. Gwen anxiously tapped her foot against the floor while standing with her back against the wall. She looked around at the complete strangers around her; it wouldn't be a surprise to her if she was the youngest one there. She took her phone out of the little pocket of her skirt and quickly dialled Peter's number.

"Come on, Peter! Pick up!" After several seconds of listening to the dial tone, she finally heard Peter on the other end of the phone.

"Hey Gwendy..." She felt slightly calmer at the sound of Peter's voice. "Do you want me to pick you up from Oscorp?"

"Peter, listen to me!" She said, her voice beginning to shake slightly. "Something bad is happening here."

"What do you mean?" Peter asked, getting very concerned. He stood up from his desk and paced around his bedroom. "Gwen, where are you?"

"I'm at Oscorp. No will tell us what's going on. All we know is that there is a disturbance somewhere in the tower." Gwen slightly whispered down the phone, not wanting anyone else in the lab to listen in on her phone call. "We are waiting to be evacuated. Peter, please come over here."

"I'll be there soon." Peter quickly went to his closet and got his Spider-Man suit ready to put on. "Stay safe, okay?"

"Hurry, Peter!" Gwen told him before hanging up. While slipping her phone back into her pocket, the conversation between two scientists a few feet away caught her attention. She looked back and noticed how they were walking in the opposite direction. She decided to follow them and find out what was happening, knowing that just waiting was getting her nowhere.

"I'm telling you, I have never seen anything like it!" Gwen heard the younger man, who must have been in their mid-twenties, tell the other man.

"What exactly did you see?" Gwen asked, making the two men turn around.

"I…I don't know. It happened so fast." He tried to explain. "I just saw someone fly past the window before I was taken down here."

"Wait, you saw _someone_ fly?" Gwen asked with a puzzled look on her face, glancing between the two taller men.

"I'm pretty sure that was just your imagination. Did he have wings?" The older, blonde man chuckled as they began walking down the hallway again. Gwen stayed behind them as they walked.

"I swear!" The younger man insisted. "He was standing on some kind of…glider."

"I overheard security saying that some prototype body amours has been stolen somewhere in the building." The blonde man said as they entered the lab. Gwen looked around at the small group of men who were already there. "Maybe one of them included a glider."

"I heard Smythe saying that alarm was from one of the special chambers." The red-headed man told them. He was sitting across the lab, at one of the computers. "Not only was the body armour stolen, one of the serums that Smythe had been working on has been stolen."

"What serum?" Gwen asked, making her way over to the group. She leaned back against one of the desks, looking between each worker standing there.

"Who's she?" The taller blonde man asked, looking at the other men who had clueless expressions on their faces. He cleared his throat before looking at the younger girl. "You really shouldn't be here, so…"

"So I should go back out there, where we are being told nothing?" Gwen interrupted, giving the tall man a cold stare while crossing her arms. "Not happening. You all seem to know something about this and I want to know why we need to be evacuated." She snapped, bringing her stare to the red-haired doctor. "What serum?"

"I don't know for sure, it could be the serum I helped him with…" He said while focusing his attention on the computer screen on front of him. He looked between each person in the room when he realised they were staring at him. "I helped Smythe with a serum that would be used as a vaccine from any cross-species viruses."

"Was this done in the robotics facility?" Gwen asked, thinking back but having no memory of this project. "I've been working there for weeks now. How did I not know about this?"

"It was a project Doctor Smythe was keeping highly confidential. I'm not even meant to be talking about it right now." He told her. Gwen titled to head slightly to see _'Alex Bailey'_ written on his Oscorp badge. "He kept the serum in private chamber. It wasn't even tested on humans yet. The animal trails were a disaster."

"What happened?" Gwen asked while moving closer to the desk Alex was sitting at.

"By studying the subject's behaviour, the serum drove them insane. They had extremely aggressive behaviour until it eventually killed them. If that's what happened with the animals, a human trial would be lethal."

"So if it's lethal on an animal trial, what would exactly happen if it was injected into a human body?" Gwen questioned, trying to make sense of all this.

"We ruled in paralysis as a possible side effect along with the violent behaviour." Alex explained. "However there could be something in the human body, such as a disease, that may react badly to the serum, which could kill the person in minutes."

"You think the person who stole it may have injected it into them self?" The blonde haired man spoke, looking between Alex and Gwen. "Well by the looks of it, we are basically being held hostage by someone surrounding the building on a glider. What else could happen?"

"Wait!" Alex began fanatically typing on the keyboard, his eyes glued to the computer screen. "The amour prototype that was taken from the lab can heal the person using nano-fibers. So the serum may kill them, but the armour…"

"The armour can cure them…" Gwen finished, crossing her arms and looking at Alex. "Is there any antidote?"

"We did create an antidote but it hasn't been tested yet. We hope will decrease any effects the serum may cause." Alex told her.

"I don't know much about the healing protocol, but it's on the arm of the armour. It can be deactivated manually though the Oscorp network. Also if the protocol on the suit breaks, it will stop the nano-fibers from entering the body." The younger man in his mid-twenties said. "I can try to get into the network, but I can't guarantee anything."

Gwen took a deep breath, letting this information sink in. She knew Peter was on his way but he didn't know how any of the circumstances surrounding this. Gwen wasn't scared of whatever was happening. She wanted to help Peter. Grabbing Alex's arm, she lead him away from the group. "I can help. Can you make the antidote?"

"It's in one of the labs so I may be able to get it." Alex told her. Gwen sighed and nodded.

"Get me the antidote and I'll handle it."

...

Peter ran as fast as he could along the ledge of the skyscraper's roof. He jumped off the edge and shot his web at the building directly facing him. He swung through the city towards the Oscorp tower. Despite soaring through the air, he felt as if he couldn't get there fast enough. As he webbed through the streets, he could hear the sound of sirens increase as he got closer to the tower. He landed on the building across the street from the Oscorp tower and ran to the ledge. He could hear the hectic noise on the street below through his mask.

Peter looked down at the street thirty storeys below him. The police had set up road blocks on the streets surrounding the tower. The front entrance to the building was surrounded by ambulances, fire engines and police teams. Peter eyes inspected the large tower facing him. He could see several smashed windows throughout the tower; he could see a small cloud of smoke coming from one of the lower floors of the building. Two police helicopters and a helicopter from the Daily Bugle News Network flew around the building.

Out of nowhere, Peter saw something fly around the tower. It took Peter a moment to realise that it was a person standing on a glider. The glider tilted to one side as it turned, a beam of faint green light followed. Peter's eyes focused to see that the person was wearing a full suit of armour. He was too far away for Peter to see his face. The glider flew through the large window of the Oscorp tower, causing glass to shatter and fall to the street below. Peter took a moment to mentally process what he just saw.

"What the hell is that…?"

Peter shot a web to the Oscorp tower and swung across, going through the now smashed window of the building. Peter landed on the tiled floor and looked around him. The floor was covered in rubble from the collapsed ceiling above, making most of the hallway lit by the dull evening sky. Cables hung from the ceiling with sparks occasionally falling out of them, having been damaged when the floor collapsed. He went down the abandoned hallway that was covered in dust and broken glass, inspecting the damage done.

"Where did they go?" Peter mumbled under his mask.

Peter heard a loud crash close by, followed by the sound of smashing glass and falling debris. Sounding like it came from outside, Peter made his way back towards the window. He looked out to see the figure fly past the window again. Peter shot a web at the edge of the window and jumped, swinging around to chase the glider. Unable to see it anymore, Peter swung back into the building, landing in the reception area of the floor. He could see elevators a short distance away.

Before Peter could even understand what was happening, he felt his body being lifted off the ground. He felt the back of his head hit the wall at harsh force. He squeezed his eyes shut, feeling severe pressure on his throat. Gasping for air, Peter opened his eyes to see the face of the person who had cause all this destruction to the building. Peter's eyes moved down to see he had been lifted several feet above the ground being brought up there by the glider. He looked at the unfamiliar person while struggling to get any air into his lungs.

The person's face was a dark shade of green, dark veins showing around his forehead and eyes. He gave Peter an evil smile, showing his stained, damaged teeth. His dark hair was messily tossed over his head. Peter wasn't sure who the person was, but they did look slightly familiar. Peter choked as the tight grip of his neck showed no signs of decreasing. The person let out an evil chuckle before gritting his teeth, bitterly. "Spider-Man…" He growled.

Gripping the neck of the suit, he swung his arm, causing Peter to fall several feet to the cold, hard ground below. Peter never got a chance to break his fall. He landed on his side, before rolling over onto his stomach. He heard loud laughing as the glider flew away from him. Peter was too weak to get up and go after him. He pulled the mask over his mouth, to help him take as much deep breathes as he possibly could. He felt himself growing more and more faint.

...

The once busy floors of the building were now deserted. Gwen slowly made her way through the lobby, listening closely for any unusual noises around her. The needle containing the antidote was tucked safely in her skirt pocket. She wasn't sure where she was going now, but she needed to meet up with Peter and give him the antidote. She had to tell him about the healing protocol on the suit, otherwise it will be harder to end this. What she had planned to do now was find Peter. She had no idea where Peter was or if he was even at the tower yet.

Gwen hit the button of the elevator, only to discover the power to the elevator had been cut. They were now completely out of use. Gwen growled, hitting the button several more times until giving up. She curled up her hand into a fist and out of frustration, slammed it into the elevator doors. The noise echoed through the empty lobby as Gwen turned around and leaned back against the elevator doors. She looked at the nearby escalators, which were now at a standstill. She went over to the escalators and made her way down, her boots clicking of the metal steps. Gwen had no other choice; she needed to meet Peter while finding her way out of the building.

After going down the escalators, Gwen found her way to the emergency staircase. She went down as many flights of stairs as she could until tiredness and shortness of breath forced her to stop and rest. She closed her eyes and leaned against the wall, taking a deep breath. She took the phone out of her pocket, holding it in her hand while using her other hand to hold the railing as she walked down the steps. She slipped the phone back into her pocket when she saw the _'No Signal' _symbol on the screen. She looked up at the sign on the wall, seeing she was now on the 52nd floor. She was about to keep going when she heard crashing noises close by.

Gwen ran out of the staircase as fast as she could, despite the fact she knew she could be running into something extremely dangerous. She just hoped this would lead her to Peter. She turned the corner and found herself on a balcony, overlooking the lobby below. She caught a glimpse of the glider smashing through the window. Gwen looked over the balcony to see the familiar red and blue suit.

"Peter…"

Gwen frantically looked for a way to get down to Peter, since the elevators were shut down. She spotted a staircase along the wall in the direction of the large, newly broken windows. She ran down the stairs as fast as her legs could carry her. When she reached Peter, she fell her knees and put her hands on his shoulders.

"Peter?" She squeezed his shoulders gently, taking frantic breaths. "Are you okay?"

"Gwen?" Peter opened his eyes, looked up at Gwen with his cloudy vision. He sat up, ignoring the pain in his shoulder as a wave of dizziness washed over him. He pulled his mask back down over his mouth before placing his hands on Gwen's arms, shaking her gently. "Are you crazy? Gwen, what are you still doing here? It's way too dangerous!"

"I was looking for you!" Gwen told him. "Peter, I can help you!"

"Come on! We have to get out of here." Peter said. He took Gwen's hands as he tried to get to his feet, silently cursing Gwen's stubbornness.

"Wait!" Gwen snapped, pulled her hands away from Peter. "Listen to me." Peter kneeled facing her, knowing there was no way she would go with him until he listened to what she had to say. He nodded, letting her know that was going to listen. "Someone stole military armour from a chamber in the building along with an extremely dangerous serum."

"Whoever it was looked a little familiar!" Peter said, thinking back to the face he had seen only minutes ago.

"The armour has a healing protocol, so any damage he takes will be healed in a matter of minutes!" Gwen explained. "I spoke to someone a while ago who works in the computer labs, they are going to try and disable the healing protocol. Until then your best way of stopping him is by damaging it, it's located on the arm of the suit."

"I got it!" Peter said, getting to his feet while taking Gwen's hands and helping her stand. "Is there anything else? Cause the person didn't exactly look normal."

"A serum Smythe was working on was stolen from the chamber. Whoever is doing this must have injected them self with it. That healing protocol is keeping him alive." Gwen reached into her pocket and pulling out the syringe containing a light blue substance. "One of Smythe's scientists created this. It will reverse any effects the serum may have caused. I had to find you to give this to you."

"Gwen Stacy, you are amazing." Peter told her before kissing her through the mask. He was about to take the needle from her when he heard the familiar noise of the glider returning. The two looked up to see it hovering only feet away from them.

"Well…" The man said in a creepy voice which was enough to make both teens shiver.

"Norman Osborn…" Gwen whispered loud enough for Peter to hear. She looked at him in shock, recognising him from the number of times she had seen him before. It now made sense to Peter why he looked so familiar.

"Stay there, Gwen." Peter whispered before cautiously stepping forward towards the Oscorp founder. "Mr Osborn…"

"Norman Osborn is dead!" He growled. "This is what happened. This is because they gave up finding a cure."

"N-no Mr Osborn, no one gave up finding a cure…" Peter stuttered slightly, moving on front of Gwen to shield her from Norman. Gwen's eyes were glued to Norman, her heart beating fast with the fear of what may happen next.

"I am going to get my revenge on those who gave up on me…no one is going to stop me! Not even you! I will kill anyone who tries to stop me!" Norman's eyes spotted the antidote in Gwen's hand. He chuckled, leaning forward on the glider. "…I'm going to start with her!"

Gwen's eyes widened, her heart beating twice as fast as before. She couldn't stop the gasp from coming out of her mouth. Peter quickly moved on front of her. Gwen held onto Peter's arm tightly, her mind racing until she heard Peter's voice.

"Gwen, run!"

Peter shot his webs at Norman while running towards him. The glider flew over him so fast that he didn't have a chance to stop him. Gwen had only managed to run a few steps when she felt her body being lifted from the ground. Peter could hear Gwen's screams when Norman picked her up. The glider did a U-turn before Norman flew out of the tower with Gwen in his arms.

"Norman, put her down!" Peter shouted, web-swinging through the broken window after them. He looked up to see the glider flying above the Oscorp tower. _I have to get her, _Peter thought, shooting webs upwards to pull him up to the top of the building. Peter stopped and held onto the side of the building when he got as close as he could to the glider. Norman was hovering several feet above him. "Norman, let her go!"

"You stopped me before Spider-Man! You won't stop me again!" Norman roared. A single tear rolled down Gwen's cheek as she tried not to look down at the streets below. Norman was holding her at least eighty stories above the ground. Gwen kept her arms around Norman's neck tightly, mentally begging him to put her down. She squeezed her eyes shut, trying not to panic. When she saw Peter at the side of the building she tried to focus her eyes on him and not on the distance to the ground below.

"Norman, put her down! This has nothing to do with her!" Peter pleaded with him; he couldn't let Gwen get hurt. It was clear Norman had lost his mind; no one could tell what he could do. "Deal with me! Leave her out of this!"

"Okay then..." Gwen saw an evil grin formed on Norman's face before he dropped Gwen from the glider. Despite Gwen's tight grip of his neck, nothing could have prepared her. Her body plummeted to the streets below at such a speed that she couldn't see anything around her. She caught a small glimpse of the dull evening sky as the ground came closer. Only one thought went through Gwen's head; _she was going to die._

"Gwen! No!" Peter watched in horror as his girlfriend fell. He jumped from the side of the building the second he saw Gwen fall, keeping his eyes on Gwen the whole time. Peter's only focused on catching her.

He soared down towards Gwen; her body collided with his at rough force. Peter felt Gwen's head hit his shoulder, hard. Peter shot a web at the Oscorp building with his left arm, trying to hold Gwen close to him with his right arm around her back. Despite holding her tightly, Peter was still terrified she would fall from his arms.

Peter snapped the web, putting his feet first to break through the window of the building. Glass from the window shattered around them when they crashed into one of the offices. Peter landed on his feet, taking a few steps to regain his balance. He still held Gwen tightly in his arms. Peter quickly carried her over to the desk a few feet away from them and sat her down.

"Oh god…Gwen, a-are you okay?" Peter gasped, ripping off his mask and throwing it onto the desk. He placed his hands on Gwen's head, brushing her now tangled hair away from her face. Gwen shook her head, whimpering as tears rolled down her cheeks. Peter wrapped his arms around her trembling body and held her tightly. "I've got you. It's okay." He chanted several times. He tried to calm the terrified girl in his arms while reminding himself that she was okay. "I'm sorry! I'm so sorry!"

He could hear Gwen crying into his shoulder. Gwen tried to speak but her pounding heart, shortness of breath and sobs prevented her from doing so. She has never been so relieved to be in Peter's arms. She felt Peter's hand caress her back while he tried to calm her. Tears of fright fell from Peter's face, landing on Gwen's white shirt. They gently pulled away from each other; Peter placed his hands on Gwen's tear-stained cheeks as he looked into her glassy eyes.

"Are you okay?" He asked. Gwen nodded, bottom lip quivering slightly.

"I'm fine." She answered with her voice slightly shaking. "Thank you."

"I'm going to get you out of here." Peter told her. He stood back and held Gwen's hands as she jumped down from the desk. She whined at the sudden stinging in her leg.

Peter frowned, looking down at Gwen's leg. He gasped noticing the blood flowing down the side of Gwen's leg. The shattering glass must have cut her when they crashed through the window. Blood seeped through her now torn tights, Gwen let out a scared gasp when she saw the blood and deep wound on her thigh.

"Don't panic." Peter quickly told her. He moved Gwen's skirt up slightly and pulled the torn lace tights away from the injury. "Stay still." He aimed his web-shooter at her leg.

Gwen hissed. She felt pressure on her leg as Peter sprayed a thick layer of webs over the cut. She carefully observed what Peter was doing. Normally it would be Gwen treating Peter's injuries.

"I'm sorry. This is all I can do to try and stop the bleeding for now."

"Thank you." He heard Gwen say while he gently inspected the work on her injury. He looked up at Gwen, his brown eyes widening when he noticed a small trail of blood dribble from her both of her nostrils. "Gwen…your nose…"

Gwen frowned and placed her index finger under her nose. She pulled it away it away and groaned when she saw the small amount of blood coating her finger. "I hit your shoulder pretty hard when you caught me."

"Does it hurt?" Peter asked, softly running his finger over her nose.

"Only a little bit." Gwen told him, slightly shaking her head. She noticed how Peter had a panicked look on his face, even though he was trying to keep calm. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine." Peter said, looking at the damage done to his suit. He could see tiny scratches on his arm though the ripped sleeves of his suit. "I need to get you to a doctor."

"The antidote," Gwen remembered before frantically looking around the floor and hitting the pockets of her skirt. "I must have dropped it somewhere."

"Hey, don't worry about that." Peter gently stoked her hair back, while leaning in and softly kissing her. "We need to get you out of here. I'm not letting you get hurt again."

A small pumpkin shaped object flew through the smashed window. It bounced off the floor before coming to a halt a few feet away from them. Both teens looked at it in confusion.

"What on earth is that?" Gwen said, not taking her attention off it.

Peter knew what it was when he noticed the red flashing dot at the top of it. He quickly grabbed his mask before he picked up Gwen and ran out of the office. He jumped to the ground, lying on top of Gwen to shield her from the explosion that followed. Peter heard the blast, mixed with the sound of Gwen's screaming.

Peter looked into the office as he stood up. Small orange flames flicked through the room from the scattered documents and folders around the office. Peter leaned down and helped Gwen stand up. Gwen held onto his shoulder for support while he put his mask back on. "I'll deal with Norman! You need to get out of here, okay? Can you walk?"

"Yeah, I'm okay." Gwen looked up at him with terrified eyes. Peter had faced danger countless times, but Gwen started to realise that this could end extremely badly. She blinked back tears while looking up at Peter, not wanting to deal with the thought of losing him. "Just be careful, okay?"

"I'll be fine. Go hit the fire alarm so they can activate the ceiling sprinklers. Get out of here as fast as you can. Okay?" Peter ordered, pointing his index finger at her. Before he could say anything else, Gwen leaned in and kissed his through the red mask.

"I love you." She tearfully told him before limping down the hallway as quickly as she could.

"I love you too!" Peter shouted. He looked back into the office to see Norman hovering on the glider, just over the growing flames. Peter inhaled deeply. He felt his blood boil looking at the man who tried to hurt Gwen. "It's you and me now, Norman!" Peter growled.

Peter shot two webs at either side of the office entrance. He pulled them back until they extended as far as they could. Peter jumped from the spot where he was standing, allowing the webs to launch him towards Norman just like a slingshot. He grabbed Norman's bare neck. The glider swayed madly as Norman tried to fight Peter off him. The glider violently flew forward, leaving them in the other end of the office. Norman used his increased strength to grab Peter's arm and forcefully throw him against the wall.

Peter's head hit the wall hard. He blinked a few times to adjust his blurry vision. He shot webs towards Norman's chest to try and pull him from the glider. Instead, Norman laughed and grabbed the webs. He turned around and strongly pulled the webs, which were still attached to Peter's wrists, over his head. Peter was dragged over Norman's head and sent crashing into a desk, making the desk brake in half.

Peter groaned as he tried to crawl away from the table, feeling horrible pain in his back and the side of his chest. He shook his head, trying to ignore his aching back. "It's just a little pain, shake it off."

Norman evilly grinned at the sight of Spider-Man injured. He hovered above Peter, about to finish him off. Peter took a deep breath, he wasn't going to let Norman win. As he struggled to get up, water suddenly sprayed from the sprinklers throughout the office ceiling, exhausting the flames caused by the explosion. Peter knew that it was Gwen who had tripped the fire alarms.

Since the armour was still a prototype, the drops of water caused the suit to malfunction. Norman screamed out in pain, feeling electric shocks shoot through his body. Peter noticed tiny sparks fly out of the arm of the suit. Norman flew the glider though the window and back onto the streets, to stop the armour from getting any more water damage. He hovered over the Manhattan streets, his arms and back stinging from the electric shocks.

Peter got to his feet and ran to the broken window. He jumped out before shooting a web and swinging after Norman. He swung around the tower, finding no trace of Norman or his glider. Peter flew through one of the broken windows of the tower, ending up in a destroyed hallway along the windows. Peter ran along the hallway until he reached the elevators on that floor.

"Where are you, Norman?" He shouted, looking around the empty space on front of the elevators. "We are not finished!"

"Peter?" He heard a familiar voice call. He knew straight away it was Gwen. He looked around until he eventually found her peering out the half closed door of the maintenance closet.

"Gwen?" Peter quickly went over to the closet and opened the door, looking at Gwen. She looked pale, her eyes still red and puffy from earlier. Her nose was no longer bleeding; however it was stained with dry blood. "What are you doing here?"

"I was on my way to the elevators on the other side of the building. Those ones were shut down." Gwen said with a frustrated sigh, gesturing towards the elevators only a few feet away from them.

"I could hear some loud noises nearby. Also my leg was hurting too much to keep walking, so I hid in here." Peter looked down and could see his webbing just under part of her skirt. "I needed to rest for a minute."

"Okay, Norman isn't around; I'm going to take you down to the street." Peter told her while cautiously looking at their surroundings. "I'll come back here and deal with Norman." He gently took her hand and led her down the hallway.

"Where is Norman?" Gwen asked, slightly limping behind Peter because of the discomfort above her knee. She placed her hand over Peter's webbing, feeling the stinging pain again.

"I don't know. He flew off after the fire alarms were activated. I think the water may have damaged his suit." Peter explained. He kept himself fully prepared in case he spotted Norman. "There were sparks coming out of his arm."

"That suit wasn't even ready to be put into use." Gwen told him. "Maybe the water had damaged the healing protocol. That would mean Norman still has the serum in his system. It won't kill him straight away but it will."

"So his illness is catching up with him." Peter said, thinking out loud while leading Gwen down the hallway towards the windows. "That's if the healing protocol is actually damaged."

Gwen folded her arms on front of her chest, watching while Peter grabbed the nearby fire extinguisher and used it to smash the glass. She anxiously looked around. Since Norman had suddenly disappeared, she felt very uneasy. He could have been anywhere, planning to get Peter at any moment. Despite the nervous feeling deep in her stomach, seeing Peter there gave her a sense of comfort. She was so relieved to see he was okay.

"Okay, put your arms around my neck." Peter instructed. Gwen wrapped her arms around Peter's neck, holding on as tightly as she could. She looked up at Peter with an unsure look.

"Peter, I'm scared." She admitted. Peter looked at her through the lenses of his mask. He gently pressed his forehead against hers. He rubbed Gwen's back before wrapping his arm tightly around her waist.

"Don't be scared, I'm going to protect you." Peter tried to sooth her while preparing to jump from the window. "I promise." Gwen nodded. She took a deep breath, tightening her grip she had around Peter's neck.

Before she could say anything else, they jumped. Gwen buried her head into Peter's shoulder as they fell through the air. Their bodies swung through the air when Peter shot a web at the buildings around them. Gwen felt butterflies in her stomach when their bodies dropped while swinging. Peter glanced down a handful of times, trying to find a place to leave Gwen where she could get medical attention.

Despite the events in Oscorp, Gwen couldn't help but think of the first ever night she went web-slinging with Peter. For the first ten minutes, she refused to look around. She held onto Peter as if her life depended on it. She finally dared herself to glace over Peter's shoulder and look at the streets below them that were lit up by headlights of the cars in traffic.

Just like that night, Gwen eventually dared herself to remove her head from Peter's shoulder. She managed to get a glimpse of the flashing emergency lights below. She could see the cars and emergency service vehicles clearer as they swung closer to the ground. Gwen looked behind them; out of nowhere she spotted familiar green lights.

"Peter!" She screamed.

Peter couldn't even react to Gwen's screams. Before he knew it, something had crashed into them at full force. They were rammed through the large window of the tower, sending them into the hallway. Gwen didn't get to see Peter before her head hit the tiled floor. Peter couldn't keep a hold of her; he had hit the floor and rolled several times before coming to a stop. He groaned at the pain shooting through his entire body. Peter got a horrible feeling in his stomach when he saw Gwen's unmoving body lying on the floor.

"Gwen? No, no, no…" He ignored his pain and frantically crawled over to Gwen. He gently shook her shoulders. "Gwen! Please wake up! Come on!" Gwen didn't respond in any way. Blood flowed from a fresh cut on the top of her forehead. Tears filled in Peter's eyes as he put his hand to Gwen's cheek. "Gwen, please!"

"You couldn't save her! You are no hero, Spider-Man." Peter heard the sound of laughing behind him. He turned around to see Norman only a few feet away from them, laughing with an evil grin.

Peter gritted his teeth, his blood boiling. He roared angrily, shooting webs towards Norman. He slingshot himself forward, feet first. His feet slammed into Normans armour protected stomach. The force of Peter's hit caused the glider to fly backwards, crashing through the wall. Peter threw punches at Norman, who had been trying to fight Peter while keeping balance on the now out of control glider.

"You are never going to hurt anyone again." Peter roared, grabbing Norman's neck and leaning forward, causing the glider to crash backwards into the wall. Peter fell from the glider, landing hard on the ground. The adrenaline going through his body helped him get up quickly. Norman flew to Peter, grabbing his neck and pinning him against the wall. Norman was so caught up with fighting Peter that he never noticed the '_error' _warning on the healing protocol.

Peter punched Norman across the face several times, in an attempt to get Norman to loosen the grip of his neck. Peter managed to tuck his knees to his chest and kick Norman away from him. Norman lost his grip of Peter easily; he looked down in shock at his shaking fingers. He knew this was a very bad sign.

After landing on his feet; Peter shot webs the armour suit, he ran around the glider while tying the webs around Norman's limbs. He managed to tie up Norman's hands to his chest, making it visibly impossible to get out off. Norman tried to break free from the web-made straitjacket. He was getting weaker by the minute which made controlling the glider and getting free a struggle.

Once Peter was satisfied that Norman was not going to get free, he ran in the direction where he had left Gwen. He was found her still unconscious on the ground; the blood coming from the cut on her forehead had now mixed into her blonde hair. Peter let out a cry of relief when he saw the slight rise and fall of her chest. She was alive. He put one arm under her knees and the other under her neck, before lifting her limp body into his arms.

"I'm going to get you out of here, Gwen." He said to the unresponsive girl in his arms. "It's over. We are going to get you to a doctor and you'll be fine." He ran down the hallway, not exactly sure where he was going. He needed to get Gwen away from here. He couldn't web-swing to the streets with Gwen since he couldn't tell what kind of injuries she had. He was risking injuring her further just by carrying, but it was his only way of getting her out of Oscorp.

He managed to get Gwen to the elevators; he hit the button with his elbow. After a short moment, he realised the elevators were still shut down. He quietly swore several times, taking a step back from the elevator. Panic began to slowly set in, even though it was rare that something could panic Peter. He looked down at Gwen who had showed no signs of regaining consciousness.

"C'mon Gwendy…open your eyes." He pulled her closer and gently kissed her forehead.

"Hey! Don't move!" Peter heard a voice behind him. He turned around to see a police officer standing there, pointing his gun in their direction. He could see another police officer standing back in the distance with a young woman. The police officer lowered the gun when he saw the girl in Spider-Man. He looked back at the other officer before he walked over cautiously, still holding the gun. "What happened to her?"

"She needs to get to a hospital." Peter managed to say with the relief that someone was here to help them. "She was injured. She may have hit her head."

"Did the person causing all this trouble hurt her?" The officer asked. Peter watched him placing two fingers on Gwen's neck to check her pulse.

Peter nodded, he was so overcome with the relief that help was here, he didn't know what words to say. The officer pressed a button the mini radio attached to his shoulder. The girl who was with the second officer approached them, her badge on her hip revealing she was an Oscorp worker.

"We need medics in the tower immediately." The officer said into the radio before he held out his arms towards Spider-Man. "Give her to me, son. We will get her to the paramedics."

Peter looked down at Gwen, her head leaning against his shoulder. He didn't want to leave her but he wasn't finished with Norman yet. He knew Gwen would now be in safe hands. He gently moved Gwen into the officer's arms. "Her name is Gwen Stacy. She's seventeen years old."

"We'll look after her." The officer reassured the masked man on front of him. He stepped away from him with Gwen in his arms.

"Those elevators are broken due an electrical fault." The dark haired girl told them. Peter got a glimpse of her name tag _'Felicia Hardy.' _"I can take you to the working elevators."

Peter watched as they left, carrying Gwen away with them. He ran back in the direction where Norman was. When he was halfway there, he came face to face with Norman once again in the hallway. Broken webs hung from his arms of the armour after he had managed to break free.

"It's over, Spider-Man!"

"Not just yet, Norman." Peter spat. "I'm going to make sure you are never going to harm anyone again."

Norman launched forward towards Peter. Peter jumped up and front flipped over Norman's glider. Landing on his feet, he turned around and shot webs at Norman, which he had managed to dodge. Norman flew back towards Peter's direction, Peter moved out of the way, making the glider crash though the wall. Peter ran after it, stepping over the pieces of rubble. He found himself in one of the Oscorp labs. Peter shot his webs in the direction of one of the machines on the desk. He pulled and swung the webs so the machine was yanked from the desk and flew towards Norman, hitting him hard and knocking him from the glider.

The glider hit the ground, no longer in use by Norman. Norman slowly rose to his feet, the healing protocol no longer working and his disease now taking over again. Using the last strength he had left, he ran towards Peter and tackled him to the ground. Peter rolled over on top of Norman. Peter used his strength to punch the Oscorp founder. He stood up and pinned Norman against the wall.

Before Peter could do anything else, the glider activated again and shot forward. Peter quickly sensed it and flipped backwards out of the way. Norman however didn't have enough time to get out of the way. The glider hit his stomach, the force of it knocking him through the wall.

Peter went over and looked Norman to check the damage the glider had done. Norman was unconscious on the tiled floor, surrounded by rubble. His chest rose and fell with the short, shaky breaths he was taking. The healing protocol now completely stopped, no longer helping Norman's injuries.

Before Peter could do anything, a horrible feeling washed over him. It was a strong feeling telling him something was wrong. Something was very wrong. He put his hands to his head as he tried to remain calm.

"Gwen…"

Peter grabbed a large piece of rubble and used it to break through the nearby window. He jumped out and quickly webbed down to the streets below. He could see countless emergency vehicles and crowds of spectators down below. He could hear helicopters even though he couldn't see them. The streets surrounding the Oscorp building were extremely noisy with the mixture of civilians and sirens.

Peter jumped down onto the sidewalk on front of the tower before his senses lead him inside the lobby of the Oscorp building. He shot his webs towards the high ceiling to get him through the main lobby and up the escalators twice as fast. Now that he was on the upper floor, the sensation increased. He knew he was close.

"She has been seizing for over a minute!" Peter heard a female voice yell. He turned around to see a group of paramedics huddled together on their knees. As Peter slowly approached them, he could see someone lying on the ground.

Peter noticed Felicia standing there, watching helplessly. Peter remembered she was with the police officers who took Gwen away. His heart dropped when he noticed the two officers standing a few feet away from them, Gwen was nowhere in sight. Peter looked back down at the group of paramedics. One of them moved out of the way, Peter could see a familiar set of blonde locks scattered across the floor.

"Gwen…?" Peter moved closer until he was able to see Gwen's face. She was still unconscious, her body shaking uncontrollably. She was lying on her side on a flat, orange coloured board. Peter could hear the paramedics talk over each other as they treated her.

"Gwen!" Peter screamed, completely forgetting he was still in his Spider-Man suit. He ran towards his girlfriend, only to find himself being held back by the two police officers. He tried his best not to use his strength to hurt the officers. "Gwen! No!"

"Let the medics work, son!" The officer from earlier told him sternly. He patted Spider-Man's shoulder but it gave him no comfort. "There's nothing you can do for her now."

Peter watched through his tear-clouded eyes as the paramedics worked around Gwen. Her body's shaking was beginning to calm, Peter noticed blood around her mouth and rolling down her chin.

"She's unresponsive with possible tachycardia!" One of the male paramedics yelled as he put his two fingers to Gwen's neck. The paramedics rolled Gwen onto her back and began to strap her down securely to the board.

"Her breathing is uneven. We need to get her to the ambulance now!" The paramedic with the deep voice shouted while holding a clear mask over Gwen's face, he squeezed the bag attached to it at a steady rhythm. The medics stood up at the same time while lifting the board onto the gurney next to them, their movements completely in-sync with each other.

"Page the ER and tell them we need an emergency MRI." The deep voiced medic said again. They quickly left with Gwen, Peter watched their every movement.

"Gwen, I'm so sorry!" Peter cried. Tears poured from his brown eyes that were covered by Spider-Man mask. He kept his eyes on her until he could no longer see her. He leaned against the wall and put his gloved hands to his head. "Don't leave me, Gwen. Not like this."

* * *

><p><strong>AN: Yes, I left it there. Don't worry, I'm not that evil. I have another long chapter planned next. So I hope you enjoyed this.**


End file.
